


All the Best Relationships are Founded on Blackmail, don't ya know

by SumDumMuffin



Series: Ruby Slippers: Dating your Dominatrix Teacher [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Fluff, Teacher-Student Relationship, allusions to BDSM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-09-09 21:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 30,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8912179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SumDumMuffin/pseuds/SumDumMuffin
Summary: In which high school teacher Glynda Goodwitch gets blackmailed for a date.





	1. Chapter 1

Glynda Goodwitch examined the blackmail that had been placed on her desk. 

It was relatively well put together; all the photographs and printed emails and the occasional crinkled pamphlet, all arranged in a manila folder. And it must have taken a considerable amount of effort to find it all, considering that Glynda hadn't used her real name back then, or that she'd always avoided photographs, or that the venue she worked at made confidentiality a priority. Glynda had thought she'd scrubbed away all traces of her time as a professional dominatrix, but hey, there was the proof now, and in retrospect, maybe she shouldn't have been bringing in a riding crop as a pointer, or have been smacking annoying student's wrists with it to encourage discipline. 

"I-if you don't want anyone to know," said a young girl in a red hoodie, meekly glancing up with bright, wide, silver eyes and a nervous expression,  "Y-you'll go out with me." 

Glynda examined the student who was blackmailing her. Ruby Rose was always quiet, seemingly shy; a lot of students pushed forwards in grades turned out like that, because schooling was as much for social training as for academics. Speaking of which, Ruby didn't have the best grades, though she was good at sports and liked to read. And, right now, Ruby was poking her fingers together, nervously trying to look confident. It was objectively adorable. 

Glynda examined why her student might try to blackmail her. If Ruby was lonely, and wasn't confident with girls her own age, maybe that'd lead to this. (Though the squeaky, twiddling little thing in front of her seemed to be comically at odds with the self-assurance Glynda'd expect of a blackmailer.) Maybe, Ruby was afraid her classmates would make fun of her, so she wanted to date someone who would have to keep it a secret? Or maybe she wanted someone with experience, for all the reasons that might be beneficial; for someone starting out dating, or dating while gay, or dating while navigating the scene. ~~Or maybe she was a sub looking for someone to dominate her.~~

And finally, Glynda examined her options. 

Glynda picked up the folder, straightened it out with two taps, and tucked it into her desk. "Blackmail is against school policy, Ms. Rose," she said as teacherly as she could (though, hopefully, keeping enough of the domme out of her voice). "Do try not to end up on the wrong side of the disciplinary committee."

Ruby blinked. Her jaw dropped, slightly. "B-but-" 

"I will see you in class, Ms. Rose." Glynda adjusted her glasses, sparing Ruby a second of eye contact before she looked down and pretended to be busy. 

"I- okay." Ruby said. She awkwardly waddled out of the room. 

 And after Ms. Rose left the room and the door fell shut, Glynda let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She leaned back in her chair and took a moment to trace constellations in the ceiling tiles and breath. 

But she didn't waste too much time doing that. Lunch was almost over, and she had lesson plans to go over, and, just in case, she looked up the school's disciplinary code. 

But secretly, she wondered if a few courtesy dates to dissuade Ruby wouldn't have been so bad. 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So to try to get back into the groove for writing, I'm going to try to update this thing every day, with updates about the size of this one.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I have the first arc planned out. Will keep updating single scenes every day though; this seems doable.

And the day continued, and Glynda eventually had to teach physics to the second-years. The bell rang and students trickled in to her classroom, among them a short-looking girl with a red hoodie, who walked with a bit of a slouch to the windowed side of the room and took a seat near the back. Ruby rested her chin on her hand and her elbow on her desk and stared out the window, the afternoon sunlight casting framing shadows along her cheek and neck and brightening the silver in her eyes. She shook an errant strand of feathery neck-length hair out of her face and sighed, melancholically. 

And when the bell rang, and Ruby (as well as the rest of the class) turned to Glynda to await instruction, the teacher realized she'd been staring. And Ruby had caught her doing that-

Glynda coughed, and she started class. 

 

 

 

 

After the opening lecture, during practice time, Glynda walked around the room to see if any of the student's had trouble completing their worksheets. 

And, at some point, Glynda slipped up, and looked to Ruby when her student was looking back at her. Glynda only froze for a second. 

Without looking away, Ruby opened her notebook and pointed it to Glynda, so the teacher could see what was written there.

_\--That wasn't the only copy._

"Ms Rose," Glynda said. She adjusted her glasses and tried to frown. "I see you're having trouble with your assignment. I suggest starting with writing your name on it." 

"I- yes!" Ruby stuttered. There were some muted chuckled throughout the class. Ruby blushed and sunk into her hoodie. 

Glynda tried not to take any sort of perverse pleasure in that altercation. 

 

 

 

 

Later on, though, Ruby managed to make eye contact with Glynda again. She had a new page open on her notebook. 

_\-- Can I see you after school?_

Glynda rubbed her brow, and then turned back to Ruby. She nodded, almost imperceptibly, once no other student was looking. 

Ruby smiled, slightly, briefly, and then resumed her worksheet. Once Glynda got around to grading it, it'd turn out Ruby would get a 71% on it. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aha, looks like I already failed the 'update once a day' goal. I'll try again, and I'll put some double updates to make up for it. 
> 
> This sort of felt like an ending, and I was wondering if I could have thought of more scenes before the confrontation. But, endings are just beginnings of something new.

After the final bell ended and Mz. Goodwitch dismissed her final class, Glynda pondered perhaps, just, packing her stuff and leaving the school, out the back doors, before Ruby could try to talk to her.

But that would probably cause more problems than it would solve. And it really didn't solve anything; it'd just delay the inevitable.  And Glynda knew how this was going to end; she'd tell Ruby no, and they could spend the rest of the school year awkwardly sidestepping each other. 

And speaking of awkwardly sidestepping; eventually, the door opened, and Ruby tried to squeeze in all cool like, but part of her hoodie caught on the doorknob and she took a while to get it free. Afterwards, she coughed and tried to look dignified, but her cheeks were tinted and she stared at the ground a lot. 

"Ruby," Glynda said in greeting.

Ruby nodded, imperceptibly.

Glynda cleared her throat. "So I'll just cut to the chase; what possible malaise could have afflicted you to think it was a good idea to _blackmail a teacher_ for a _date?"_

Ruby's cheeks tinted even more, and she shoved her hands into her pockets and sunk her head into her hoodie. "Um," she said. 

Glynda sighed. "Did you really think I- as a teacher and an adult- would agree to go on a date with someone- let alone a teenage student I'm responsible for teaching- because they blackmail me?" 

Ruby shirked back. Her cheeks reddened even more.

More softly, but not on purpose, Glynda said, "And did you think threatening me would endear you to me?" Then she coughed, and waved the air, and before Ruby could respond, she said, "And why do you want to date _me?_  Was it just because you randomly found incriminating evidence of my previous profession?" 

"No!" Ruby said, looking up. Then she looked back down. "It's- it's because I, um." Ruby's face tinted red. "I like you." 

Glynda blinked.

"Though," Ruby mumbled, barely audible, "The dominatrix thing didn't hurt."

Then Glynda removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Ruby looked up again. "I- I'm not very good at asking people out..."  

"Alright. I have no evidence that contradicts that conclusion," Glynda said. "So is blackmail the only way you know to ask someone out?" 

Ruby shirked. "Um-" 

"So here's a tip, just from me to you; anything can be a date. Window shopping. Riding the bus. Dinner's the usual go to, because everyone eats. You can just ask someone if they want to do any of that with you." 

"Ok." Ruby said. She looked up. "Would- you like to go window shopping with me, some time?" 

Glynda blinked. "No!" 

Ruby shirked again, turning her head away and blushing profusely. 

 Glynda felt a pang of sympathy. She tried to shoot Ruby a reassuring smile. "Look. I know high school's tough. And if you're also working out some," Glynda gestured vaguely in the air, "sexuality things, then doubly so. But at the risk of sounding nihilist; high school doesn't really matter. You take away what you want to take away from it; all your mistakes will be erased and your achievements will fade, but for that which you choose to take with you." Glynda almost reminisced there. "So there's no reason to worry about trying new things." 

Ruby stroked an errant strand of hair behind her ear and made eye contact with Glynda and smiled. "Ok. Thanks." 

There was a short stretch of awkward silence. 

"Well," Glynda said. She turned back to her papers and pretended to work. "I'll see tomorrow, then, Ruby. And most weekdays after that, for the rest of the school year."

Ruby seemed to ponder that, for just a second, and she brightened up even more. "Ok, yeah! I guess you will." 

And Ruby left. 


	4. Chapter 4

Ruby eventually caught up with her sister, where the school sidewalk met the parking lot. Some of the after-school rush had thinned out, and Yang was there with a dark skinned bookworm and a cheerleader with platinum hair, who were arguing about something. Past experience led Ruby to believe that the something Blake and Weiss were arguing about was of the 'stupid', 'irrelevant', or 'we actually agree on but don't realize it' varieties. 

"Oh hey, sis," Yang said. She leaned an elbow on the shorter girl. "Did you finish that business you needed to take care of?"

Ruby hadn't given Yang any specifics (obviously), and Yang hadn't felt the need to pry. Ruby was grateful for that.

Ruby shrugged Yang's arm off of her. "Yeah."

"Cool; let's get to the car," Yang pushed Ruby by the shoulders. "And don't say I never do anything for you; I had to spend ten whole minutes mediating the lovebirds-" 

"OH. MY. GOD." Weiss said, "Not even!"

"I resent the very implication that Weiss and I would be anything less than mortal enemies," Blake said.

"Ah, no?" Yang smiled her trademark smirk. "You can't see it?"

"Blake is gross," Weiss said. She but her hands on her hips.

"Weiss is dumb," Blake said. She had a book, open, in her hand, all the time, which she resumed reading if she ever got board of conversations.

"Ex -CUSE me?" Weiss said. "I have excellent grades, I'll have you know." 

"So your dad bought you a study guide," Blake deadpanned. "Doesn't mean you're smart."

"At least I can _afford_ a study guide."

They started arguing again. Yang sighed. Ruby zoned out.

Ruby started wondering if maybe she shouldn't have tried to blackmail Ms. Goodwitch. It made sense at the time, and Ruby hadn't been confident in being charming enough to make someone want to spend time with her, but now it seemed Glynda was mad at her. More mad than when she'd failed her second assignment for the class. 

But she'd managed to have a conversation with the most beautiful teacher in the school, as a result, so, maybe it worked out.

"Ahahaha," Yang said, "So I guess we're leaving now. Will you two be fine alone with each other?" She tried again to lead Ruby to her car.

"My bus isn't here yet," Blake said.

"My dad's going to be a bit late, or so his secretary says," Weiss gestured with her phone.

"I mean," Yang rubbed the back of her head and looked like she was going to regret her next words. "I can always give you guys a ride, if you want."

"Only if I don't have to share the car with _this_ annoyance." Blake gestured to Weiss, without looking up from her book.

"Really? REALLY? _I'm_ the annoying one?"

Ruby found she didn't mind the arguing, on the ride home, but she was lost in her thoughts most of the time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figure this is common knowledge, but just in case; don't blackmail people. It's not very nice. This is a work of fiction.
> 
> Also, I know in high school I was very ignorant about seemingly common knowledge that appears to be very easy to google, so hoping Ruby's characterization makes sense.

After Yang dropped Weiss off at her family's mansion and Blake off at the library and they got to their apartment, Ruby retreated to her room, kicked off her shoes and changed into her pajamas. She removed her right sock, but didn't feel inclined to remove her left one. She didn't have any reason to leave her room for the rest of the night.

Ruby and Yang lived alone, and had planned to do so until they finished high school. Dad worked in another city, and it was customary for teenager to live alone with no oversight, at least for the students at Beacon.

Ruby got halfway through a packet of chocolate chip chocolate cookies (with extra chocolate) and a quarter of the way done with her homework before she became a little overwhelmed with the enormity of life's expectations and she decided she needed a break.

Ruby glanced to the door out of habit (she'd made sure it was locked when she came in) and then she opened the bottom drawer of her desk, pulling out a manila folder from under a pile of books. Ruby got out of her chair and jumped, backwards, expertly, onto her bed, and leafed through the array of magazines and pamphlets and other pieces of incrimination evidence of some sort of lascivious, illicit past life.

She had taken photographs of all of this, but these were the rest of her physical copies. She'd only given Ms. Goodwitch the ones she'd been able to find duplicates of.

Ruby pulled out an old magazine, faded around the edges, and turned to a page she had dog-eared. This was a risque magazine, and the page was it's centerfold, where a blonde, green-eyed woman- older, with distinguished lines around her eyes and a domineering smirk on her face- was stepping on whatever camera was used to take this photo. The impression was that she was stepping on the viewer. The model was wearing a racy, dark purple negligee, and from the camera angle, was just barely flashing the viewer. There was also an article, transcribing an interview with someone with the title of 'dominatrix', and something about shows, so Glynda must have also been some sort of performer. 

And there was a bit of plausible deniability that the woman could be someone other than Glynda Goodwitch, but the other blackmail supported the conclusion, and Ms. Goodwitch's reaction today had all but confirmed it.

Then there was a knock at the door. Ruby immediately gathered all her magazines and pamphlets back into their folder and hid it under her pillow.

"Hey, Ruby?" came Yang's voice, "I made popcorn and there's this new series out on Netflix. Are you done with your homework?"

Ruby glanced at her desk, and then at her pillow, and then at the door. "Yeah, I'll be right out."


	6. Chapter 6

Glynda returned to her apartment and she hung her coat up on the rack and she threw her bag on the floor by her desk. She opened her refrigerator and looked over the piles of fresh (but slowly getting less fresh) vegetables and contemplated making a salad, before instead opting to microwave a chicken pot pie, promising herself some healthy choices tomorrow. 

After she ate, Glynda sat down at her desk and slumped back in her desk, taking a moment to breath and rub her eyes under her glasses. Afterwards, she scotched a stack of papers to the side and pulled out a thick manila folder. She'd thought she'd gotten rid of most of this sort of evidence, but it looked like that wasn't the case.

Glynda pulled out a magazine. It was that magazine she'd done an interview for. This particular copy was old- probably traded around grungy back-alley stores only open at night until they fell into the hands of a particularly lucky fifteen year old girl. 

Glynda couldn't help but smile. The interviewer was some hapless lady from a newspaper that had since gone out of print and who'd blushed when Glynda offered to tie her up and spank her, to see if she'd see the appeal.

There were fliers back when the club advertised her shows, and a few photographs she'd allowed some sort of publicist to take of her. It was all official, promotional material, and none of it had her real name, so only someone who'd seen them and met her would put two and two together. Which meant Ruby had gotten herself access to some things that was not age appropriate or had found some really questionable back alley porn broker. Both possibilities were troubling.

But Glynda was a little relieved that there was nothing in there that suggested her former employer or any of her clients had breached the confidentiality agreement. She'd feared that eventuality, and had prepared for it, but it was nice that the world wasn't as bad as she'd feared.

The thing on her mind now, however, was what to do about the student who'd stumbled down the kinky rabbit hole.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: Added the chocolate bar part.

Glynda got to the school early. Usually she did, and today was no exception, and it certainly wasn't influcenced by the fact that she'd had trouble sleeping the previous night. 

So Glynda showed up when the first janitors did and went over her lesson plans and organized her classroom and basically did everything she could to procrastinate on figuring out what to do with Ruby.

And then classes were about to start, so Glynda figures she should see the sunlight before classes started, like a normal, well-adjusted adult.

Glynda opened the door to her room. It stopped halfway, with a thud. 

"Oof!" Came a voice. A familiar voice.

"Ruby?" Glynda asked. "What are you doing here?" 

"I, uh," Ruby said, "wanted to know if I could turn in today's homework tomorrow?" She was clutching her face with her left hand. 

"No I meant- nevermind." Glynda was going to ask why Ruby was standing so close to the door, but the point was moot. 

Glynda saw some blood underneath Ruby's hand. 

"Oh. Oh dear," Glynda said. She grabbed Ruby's free wrist and pulled her into her classroom, sitting her down on the chair next to her desk.

Glynda fished out a small white box from her purse. She pulled out a bottle of antiseptic guaze from it and bid Ruby to remove her hand from her face. Glynda tried to ignore how Ruby shuddered under her hands.

Glynda coughed. "Sorry if this stings a little."

"That, uh, won't be a problem." Ruby spoke that very softly, to the ground.

Glynda coughed again. She pulled out an adhesive bandage strip at unpeeled it over Ruby's cut. "There you go."

Ruby touched her face. Her expression was unreadable.

Glynda then pulled out a chocolate bar from the white box. She unwrapped a corner and handed it to Ruby. Chocolate didn't go bad for a long time, and this was gourmet chocolate, so it probably was ok. Ruby took the bar and mumbled a thank you and nibbled on a corner.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. It shouldn't scar, and a bandage on the cheek looks-" Glynda coughed, and rephrased what she was about to say. "Well, I mean, some people would not disagree that it has a sort of aesthetic appeal."

"Oh." Ruby blinked. "Are you one of those people?"

Glynda smushed her lips together. "No comment."

Ruby smiled. Glynda hoped she didn't get the wrong idea.

"It's cool that you keep a first aid kit with you."

"It's, uh," Glynda rubbed the back of her head, "Actually an aftercare kit. Old habits die hard, I guess.

"Oh." Ruby rubbed the back of her head and she blushed at the ground. "Cool."

Glynda coughed. "Anyway, I suppose, just this once, you can turn your homework in late."

Ruby smiled. "Ok. Thanks. And thanks for the chocolate."

Glynda coughed one last time. "It's to make you feel better. I'll see you in class, Ruby."

Ruby nodded, and left. 

 


	8. Chapter 8

Ruby stared at her all class. Glynda regretted not fully buttoning up her blouse, but, hey, she was sort of vain. Other students had had crushes on her before, probably (maybe?) and Glynda's go to protocol had been to just ignore it. It wasn't like she'd ever return the feelings, and if they both pretended it wasn't there, then it'd all be fine. Nobody had ever confronted her about any hypothetical (but statistically certain) crush, though.

And Glynda couldn't really complain about it. Ruby was at least pretending to pay attention to the lesson.

Right after the bell rang, Glynda called out, as non-chalantly as she could, for Ruby to see her after class.

And Ruby did, meekly, her hands stuffed into her pockets and her head tilted down.

"Are you having trouble paying attention, Ms Rose?"

"Not at all-"

"Let me rephrase that." Glynda tried to keep her face neutral. "Are you having trouble paying attention to the lesson plan?"

"Umm...." Ruby sunk into her hoodie.

"You seem a little distracted, in class.

"I- well," Ruby peeked up and shot Glynda a small smile, "you could say there's something more interesting than physics, in class."

Glynda coughed. ~~Her heart thumped against her ribcage.~~ She removed her glasses to clean them, blindness having some defense against the adorable creature in front of her. Objectively adorable, she meant; anybody else would react the same way, surely. 

"I need not remind you that you are barely passing my class as it is, I hope?"

That actually caused Ruby to shirk in shame, this time. Glynda felt a little bad, but that was sort of her goal this whole time, right?

"I- you don't, Ms. Goodwitch," Ruby said.

Glynda replaced her glasses and tried to smile encouragingly. "It's nothing a little hard work can't fix. You have shown promise at the beginning of the year, and I believe in your abilities."

Ruby smiled at that. Glynda figured it was a good thing, because teachers were supposed to encourage their students, academically.

"And if you have trouble with any of the concepts, you can always ask for help, when I'm free."

Ruby smiled, her head up high. "Thank you, ma'am! I'll keep that in mind." 

And as Ruby left the room. Glynda mentally kicked herself. Why did she say that? Ruby'd be here all the time, now.

But hey, maybe it would at least get her grades up.


	9. Chapter 9

Ruby met with Blake for lunch. It was the routine. They talked about the most recent book they were reading together; _Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde._ They'd been reading a lot of horror books lately. They were both kind of goth that way.

Yang had reserved a table. Weiss was there, and Blake hesitated a moment before sitting down in the fourth chair, diagonally across from Weiss.

"Hey Rubaby," her sister said, "What's wrong?"

"I-it's nothing."

"Is it because you didn't get the grade you wanted on yesterday's physics handout?"

"What?"

"I saw you only got a 71 on it-"

"OH MY GOD, YANG," Ruby said. Her nose twitched in anger. "Could you just mind your own business? I passed; that's good enough." 

"But you only got a 63 on the last test, so you're still failing-"

"OH. MY GOD. YANG." Ruby angrily shoved a handful of cafeteria french fries into her mouth. "It's fine; I'll get a C by the end of the semester."

"You're allowed to get C's?" Weiss and Blake said, at the same time. They turned to look at each other, and then they turned away.

Ruby was glad for the interruption; Yang was probably going to feed her some B.S. about 'just looking out for her', or, possibly, 'if I don't get on your case, you're just going to fail', or maybe even the whole 'why won't you just let me help you?' deal.

"W-well," Weiss said. She folded her arms. "At least you have a standard of excellence."

Blake pretended to read her book. "At least your parents don't just buy your grades, like they do with everything else." 

"You don't even know what you're talking about," Weiss yelled. Ruby chuckled, involuntarily, at how dysfunctional their friend group seemed to be.

"I know hard work when I see it," Blake said, "I don't get the luxury of being able to get bad grades."

"You think _I_ do? My sister was valedictorian; even if I managed that, I'll only be average."

"Worse than average; some people actually managed to tolerate your sister."

Blake and Weiss continued their shouting match.

Yang tried to continue their conversation, unfortunately. "But seriously; I'm sure Mz. Goodwitch could help you if you to her for help-"

"I know that! In fact, I'm going there today during free period."

"Just because I told you?"

"No~" Ruby felt her face redden, also in anger. "Surprise, Yang; I'm actually competent sometimes."

Yang pretended to look apologetic. "I didn't mean-"

"Whatever." Ruby sipped the rest of her box milk and picked up her tray. "I should get going now."

Ruby manage to calm down by the time she handed in her tray. She didn't quite figure out what she was going to say to Ms. Goodwitch later, but there was probably no amount of time that would have prepared her for that.

 


	10. Chapter 10

Ruby stared at the door to Glynda's room and took a breath.

She tried to quiet the thundering of her heart.

She failed. Ruby was good at that, in general. Aha.

But, eventually, Ruby put her hand on the door handle, and, eventually, she managed to turn it and open it and bring her left foot forward and lean her body weight forward to propel herself into the room-

And there were other people there. Ruby froze.

"Hey Ruby!" Nora waved. Ren nodded sagely. Both tof them turned back to Ms. Goodwitch.

Glynda looked over her, in that way she'd been doing recently; she'd at first try to look away, like she was trying to pretend she didn't just look at Ruby (Ruby'd done the same thing with her first crush, and even though she'd thought Glynda might be too old or too experienced to be embarrassed like that, it was still unexpectedly cute.), and then Ms. Goodwitch would clear her throat or adjust her glasses or sometimes even fidget a little (sort of like Ruby did _all the time_ ; it made the teenager feel less bad about being so awkward), and then try to conduct teaching as normal, trying to treat Ruby just like any other student. But Ruby knew she wasn't just any other student; Glynda's gaze would sometimes linger on Ruby a little longer when she was panning the class, and sometimes she'd look away, suddenly, if Ruby smiled at her or even just made eye contact.

It was probably just because Ruby was 'the student who tried to blackmail her', but Ruby would take it. 

Nora and Ren were asking about the last part of physics they'd covered. Electromagnetic waves or something.

Ruby felt she should be trying to study with them; she could pull out her book and her assignments, and try to see if she could follow along. She was probably more lost than either of them, and if she actually cared about her grade (rather than just coming here to see Ms. Goodwitch), she should probably pull out her class materials and start trying to follow along. And, presumably, she didn't want to _fail_ the class....

But Ruby didn't pull out her book. She didn't even open her bag. She sunk into her hoodie, clasping her hands together and extending them downward.

Really, what did she expect? That Glynda had invited her here because she actually wanted to see her? Ruby was just a student, just another student, and not a very good one at that- that's what Ms. Goodwitch had meant when she invited her here, right? It was just part of her duties as a teacher. 

This was all just so stupid. Why'd Ruby even come here? Why did she ever, even for a moment, believe she could be important to someone like Ms. Goodwitch? Ruby balled her hands into fists and shut her eyes tight enough to squeeze out the tears and- 

"Cool, I think that's everything," Nora said. She stood up. Ren followed.

Then Ruby looked up.

Nora and Ren left, and the door closed.

And Ruby was alone with Glynda.

Ms. Goodwitch cleared her throat and adjusted her glasses. "So, Ms. Rose," Glynda said, "Did you have anything you wanted to ask me? About physics, I mean-?" Glynda interjected that last part, hurriedly,

"Oh!. Um." Ruby opened her bag and dug through the chaos until she found a partially crinkled piece of paper with a red '71' on the top right.

"I- guess I wanted to go over what I missed on the last handout?"

"Of course." Glynda smiled. At _Ruby._ Like, that smile was just for her.

Ruby looked down at the paper in her lap. She tucked a lock of hair behind her left ear and couldn't help but smile in response.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this fic's been going on for eleven chapters now, time to alienate subscribers.

After about a week of Ruby coming in during free period, (every free period, mind), Glynda decided it was probably an okay time to ask her a question. For a change, aha. And by it 'probably being an okay time', she meant that Ruby had likely forgotten about trying to blackmail her (Or, more likely, she had just decided not to actively pursue that), and Glynda herself found she was starting to look back on the incident with a sort of bemused nostalgia. It was all water under the bridge, and Glynda's routine could settle back down to normal.

Except, you know, now she had a student who kept shooting her bedroom eyes. ~~It was not entirely unpleasant.~~

And, after spending about 315 total minutes sitting at Glynda's desk, Ruby proved herself to be an intelligent young woman and a very diligent worker. Not quite a conversationalist, but, possibly, a junior physicist. The admiration felt good.

Like, Ozpin had talked about how rewarding it was to feel like you've inspired a student with your teaching ability, and maybe this was it. It was more likely, however, that in Ruby's case, that statement was only true if 'teaching ability' was some sort of euphemism.

But And that was what was stopping Glynda from asking her question. Ruby still hadn't gotten over her crush, and Glynda didn't want to do anything to accidentally prolong it.

 _'Why_ _did you like me?'_   or, for right now, _'Why do you like me?'_. It was a deeply personal question, but it was at the root of all this blackmailing business. Ruby had tried to blackmail her for a date; not money, not grades, but a night companionship and romance. That implied a few things about the current state of the teenager's life.

Or, you know, maybe it was just that Glynda was super hot and Ruby thought she deserved that. Bad phrasing; maybe Ruby thought that Glynda's superficial appeal exceeded the obvious reasons why a relationship wouldn't work out. Age, for one; Ruby was, like, 16? She'd skipped a grade or something. Another was that Glynda was a teacher, and thus already in a position of power over Ruby. There were probably more reasons.

But if Ruby was just attracted to her looks, that just meant that maybe Glynda just had to pick her nose when she 'didn't realize' Ruby was looking, or something. Ruby would then see that Glynda wasn't some abstract symbol of aesthetic perfection, get over her crush, and then Glynda could satisfy her curiosity and with that knowledge take steps to ensure it wouldn't happen again.

So, one free period, after Ruby came in and made quiet, halting small talk, and Glynda obliged, cordially, and Ruby asked how to do the homework and Glynda recapped the lecture she gave in class (Speaking of which; Ruby really should try to pay more attention in class, to learn the material the first time.), and Ruby smiled and nodded and started working, right there, at her desk- after that, Glynda became acutely aware that Ruby was sneaking glances at her.

So Glynda stuck her right pointer finger in her left nostril.

There was a little bit of mucus build up, by now. Glynda usually waited until she got home to clear it out, but there was enough to work with. 

At some point, Ruby squeaked, and became very interested in her textbook. Her face looked a little red. Glynda suppressed a chuckle.

Glynda finished excavating her nasal cavity and examined her results. Unfortunately, it appeared she didn't have a box of tissues at her desk, so she rolled her booger between her thumb and forefinger until it congealed, and she flicked it into a nearby trashcan. 

Glynda turned to Ruby.

Ruby shirked. "I-I didn't see anything-"

Maybe Glynda needed to be more direct. "I know I try to maintain a cool and collected image," the teacher said, "But secretly I'm actually kind of gross."  

"You _are_ cool, though!" Ruby said, apparently forgetting to be nervous, but just for that sentence. She sunk into her hoodie. "Y-you're so confident, and smart, and nice. And- we're all only human, right?" 

Glynda responded to that with some noncommittal shrugs, and Ruby went back to her worksheet.

Welp. That didn't work out like she'd wanted. But at least Ruby wasn't as superficial as Glynda'd expected. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only have my personal experiences, which means I'm acutely aware of how little expertise I have on romance, coming out, or scientific studies. So standard disclaimer.

So trying to guess what it was Ruby liked about her and counteracting her traits, based on said guess, was failing spectacularly. Glynda should probably just ask Ruby, directly, what it was about Glynda that the student found appealing. Maybe thinking about it hard enough would cause Ruby to reconsider. Like, maybe she'd realize that there was someone her own age who was more compatable with her. Or maybe (And Glynda tried to ignore that she found herself a little disappointed when she thought of this), Ruby would realize that Glynda's wasn't as desirable as she'd thought. 

So, the best course of action would be to just ask Ruby why she liked her. Without chickening out, this time. 

Glynda cleared her throat. "Ruby, can I ask you something?" 

Ruby looked up at her, expectantly. Her eyes were a brilliant silver (Glynda couldn't help but notice that each time they locked gaze), and, unlike in class, they were focused, alert, eager; everything a teacher looked forward to and a target of an unrequited crush dreaded.

Glynda cleared her throat. The silence was a yes.

Glynda chickened out. "Have you dated anyone before?" Glynda asked, quickly, because she'd said she was going to ask a question, and she couldn't just not say anything.. (Later, she'd press a pillow to her face and worry that that might have been too personal, or that it might have implied she herself was interested.)

Ruby looked down and bit her lip. "N-no," she began. 

After a few moments of silence, Glynda attempted an encouraging smile, 

"I-" Ruby scrunched her mouth to the side. "I'm worried about what people would say. If I dated a girl."

Glynda sat back in her chair and exhaled and nodded and cogitated, tracing the ceiling dryboard. Yeah, she'd been there.

"While I am not completely familiar with your circumstances and thus you are the final arbiter of your actions, I find that some people will be more supportive than you would have thought, those that don't support you are more bearable than you would have feared, and that most people are much, much less interested at all in your personal matters. That's true in general, too."

Ruby nodded, but kept eye contact. 

Glynda adjusted her glasses. "So, unless there are extenuating circumstances, if I were you, I wouldn't let my worries about what people said stop me from asking out a girl I fancied."

"Well," Ruby said. She smiled, nervously. "I already did ask out a girl I fancied, right?"

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side. Yeah, that was true. She had almost been able to forget about it. 

The teacher cleared her throat. "Personal question; sorry for prying," she began.

Ruby continued to stare- gaze? sit wide-eyed and rapt with attention? for a bit, and then nodded.

"Do you think your parents would support you, if you came out?"

"Well," Ruby smiled, forlornly, at her desk, "Neither of them are equipped to support me, so it's kind of moot." 

"Oh." Glynda said. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Glynda took a breath, and remembered a few moments; her time as a teenager, her time as the newbie at the club, and all the times when she felt lost, or alone, or uncertain and desperate for some sort of support.

"Well," Glynda said. For once, she decided that looking her age might be a good thing. "Regardless of what other people say, you can always count on my suport, Ms. Rose."

 Ruby's face lit up into a soft little smile. "Thank you, Ms. Goodwitch. I appreciate that. Really."

Glynda found herself staring, into Ruby's eyes.

Glynda coughed and nodded and broke off eye contact. She adjusted her glasses and turned back to her work.

"And," Ruby said, "I, uh, um."

 Ruby pulled out a notebook. 

"I took an extremely unscientific poll of how often people pick their noses...."

Glynda smushed her lips together. She felt her cheeks light up. It was an unfamiliar feeling; it'd been a while since she'd felt embarrassed. Being a retired dominatrix probably had something to do with that.

"...And nobody wanted to admit to it in person, but when I did it anonymously, about nine out of ten people said they did...."

Glynda kept a dignified poker face throughout Ruby's report. When she finished, Ruby looked at Glynda, with her wide, silver eyes. "S-so, you shouldn't worry about, uh, your nasal hygiene- not that I saw anything!- but, um. Yeah."

Welp. 

Glynda didn't know what to say to that, so she defaulted to constructively critiquing the scientific rigor of her student's extracurricular study. 

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, no guarantee of expertise, in anything. 
> 
> More fluff and slightly risque situations in the next chapter, promise.

The next lunch period, Glynda decided to ~~snoop around~~ do reconnaissance on the state of their school's LGBTQ+ student organization, to see if it would be helpful for Ruby. 

Glynda had flashbacks to high school. ~~30 years ago~~ surely not too long ago, these kinds of resources were more scarce and less socially accepted (not to mention less funded), so it was good they existed now. It did mean, however, that coming out in high school had been... less than ideal, so to say. And now, Glynda was back in high school, and she was going to do it again. Theoretically, she was out, but she didn't really advertise that. Moving directly into a career where the nuances of one's sexuality weren't questioned was liberating, and the subsequent years of her career allowed her to get every urge to prove anything about herself. Theoretically.

But, this club wasn't exactly like working as a lesbian dominatrix. This was a political thing, like when the union reps asked people to be officers and campaign and stuff. Joining the Beacon GSA was more than just coming out, in highschool, again; it'd be tinged with an expectation of activism. Maybe.

But, eventually, Glynda remembered that she was a confident adult, and she put her hand on the door handle, and, eventually, she managed to turn it and open the door, and she brought her left foot forward and leaned her body weight forward to propel herself into the room. 

"Ms Goodwitch!" squeaked a blond student whom Glynda didn't recognize. "W-what are you doing here?" 

"We have all the paperwork to be here-" stammered Nora. Ren was there too. So that was two people Glynda knew, from other things. "We're still looking for a faculty sponsor, but Principal Ozpin said he'd step in if we didn't find anyone-"

"I'm not here for disciplinary action," Glynda said. Had she acquired that sort of reputation? It made her strangely proud.

"Oh?" asked the blonde student.

"Actually," Glynda said. She scrunched her mouth to the side. "I'm here because I. Was thinking. About." Glynda awkwardly stepped towards a chair and sat down. "Joining."

There was a chorus of blinking.

"Your club." Glynda finished.

"Oh! Oh, cool," said the blond student. 

The red haired student pushed a sign-in sheet in front of her.

"So we can do introductions again," explained the scarlet-haired girl. "Normally we do names, pronouns, and low points and high points of the week."

The club introduced themselves first, which was good, because Glynda got an idea of how the introduction. format worked, and it allowed her to procrastinate on her introduction.

The gist of it was; Pyrrha, the scarlet-haired student, was the club president and founder, The blonde student, Jaane, was working out a self identity and trying out pronouns during club, and Ren and Nora were Pyrrha's friends, and joined to be allies (This actually made the club 50% straight, cis people. Glynda got flashbacks to the union. Which was theoretically good, but it made connecting a little more intimidating.)

Then it became time for Glynda to introduce herself.

"So. I'm Glynda Goodwitch. I'm an instructor here. Female pronouns. And for low and high...." Well, it was a little more than a week ago, but Glynda's low point was probably when one of her students tried to blackmail. ~~The high point was, possibly the same moment.~~   As for a high point, maybe it was seeing that her teaching actually was effective and Ruby managed to get a 92 on the last worksheet.

In the end, Glynda only divulged some generic, non-committal teachery answers. The other students talked among them selves, letting Glynda overhear for her own benefit, she'd concluded, to try to make her feel at home. It didn't quite work, and Glynda was starting to come up with reasons why she couldn't go to subsequent meets.

So Glynda nodded and bid her farewells, and she shook hands with everyone in the club. She took a pamphlet for the road, and she awkwardly walked And at the end, Glynda shook hands and grabbed a pamphlet. It wasn't as bad as she'd feared, and, hey, she had all the confidence of life experience, supposedly, right?

Well, if Ruby was as shy as she seemed, maybe a small, intimate setting would be good for her. Alternatively, if she was as shy as she seemed, it might be too daunting trying to integrate into an existing friend group.

 

 

 

 

 

And then, Glynda decided to ~~snoop around~~ no, wait, that was probably the accurate term- she decided to snoop around the cafeteria, to see if Ruby had friends.

(Also, Glynda couldn't help but notice all the students who picked their noses when they thought no-one was looking. Damnit, Ruby.)

Ruby was sitting with three other girls that Glynda recognized as being in the same year as her. So since Ruby skipped a grade, they'd be a year older or so, so maybe they intimidated the younger student.  Ruby stared at her food, mostly. Glynda sympathized. 

There was Winter Schnee's younger sister, Weiss. She was doing OK in Glynda's class, thought she did appear to be, as the technical term was, a 'mega-bitch'.

And there was also the quiet foreign student (crap, was that racist?) who sat in the back of Glynda's class and always finished early and read terrible romance novels with the remaining time. Blake something. 

And there was a blonde girl who was in the other physics section. She seemed rather loud, but she leaned on Ruby's shoulders a couple times during the lunch period, so she was either just really affectionate, or she and Ruby were close. 

Also, Glynda noted that Ruby spent most of the lunch period staring at her food dejectedly, possibly sighing, occasionally brushing a lock of feathered reddish hair behind her ear. ~~What was it about timid, shy girls that just made them so cute?~~ At least her friends seemed to be concerned with her wellbeing. Trying to include her in conversations and stuff.

But yes, it seemed that Ruby did indeed have other friends. Glynda wasn't the only person she was looking to for some sort of human connection. It was good. Glynda was happy about that. Yes.

Which meant, with her mission accomplished, Glynda could stop snooping by the hallway. There wasn't any need to keep watching Ruby from afar, so she should just go back to her classroom and start prepping the next section.

Yep, just any moment.

Probably should go before she drew any attention to herself-

A hand tapped Glynda's shoulder. the teacher flinched.

"Hello, Mz. Goodwitch," said the principal, "What brings you to the cafeteria?"

"Oh! Hello Ozpin." Glynda took a breath. "Just. Hungry, I guess."

"Oh?" Ozpin smiled some sort of smile. "Were you looking for friends to eat lunch with?"

Glynda paused. Crap, she wasn't like that, was she? Was _she_ the one without any friends? "

"Well, if you'd care to join me, I am looking forward to the chicken nuggets, today." Ozpin nodded. He seemed earnest.

Glynda figured she could get behind that. She shrugged and followed.

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guarantee no expertise on school sports, bondage, weekends, homework, erotica, or grammar. 
> 
> The intent here was; Ruby is inexperienced and thus doing it wrong, or at least suboptimally. So please don't try this at home, (at least until a later chapter. And even then, try to be safe; have a safety cutter, keep circulation in mind. Also, don't get all your information from fanfics.)

Ruby looked over the rest of her homework. It was mostly done, (probably), and the rest of it, she knew how to do (hopefully), so it was just busywork. And she'd been working for like a whole hour, nonstop. 

Besides, now that the rugby season was over and Ruby was waffling on whether she wanted to join basketball, what else was she supposed to do with her weekend? 

Ruby pulled up some music on her laptop to set the mood, and also to cover up any inadvertent squeaks or grunts she might make. Then, the teenager carefully stepped around the clothes and junk on her floor until she got to her closet. Underneath one particularly large pile of clothes, she pulled out a shoebox. Out of the shoebox, she pulled out a package of rope, which she brought over to her bed and opened. 

She'd seen a few guides on this, yeah? She'd also seen, like, three whole pinups with people tied up in them. She'd wanted to try this for a while.

Ruby took a breath. Her cheeks heated up. She tied her legs together first, at the ankles and above the knees. Her left foot started falling asleep, tingling nicely. Then she went for her torso. She'd seen this thing where the ropes wrapped around a lady's breasts, and after a bit of trial and error Ruby figured out something that looked similar and felt nicely snug. Ruby smiled. 

And she knew that there were ball gags or something, but she hadn't had the chance to get one of those, but, like, you could just use handkerchiefs, she figured. 

Ruby didn't have handkerchiefs either, so she took a hand towel from the bathroom. It was a little less sexy than she'd hoped, but having a real gag would probably be better, when she managed to get there, eventually.

And lastly, Ruby tied her own wrists together. She was impressed with herself, for managing to do that. It wasn't as tight as she would have liked, but that what practice was for. Ruby squirmed against her restraints, playfully. There maybe have been an inadvertent squeak or grunt or two.

There was a knock on the door. 

Ruby flinched. Luckily, since her limbs were tied, she didn't bump or break anything. 

"Hey Ruby," came Yang's voice, "Blake's staying over, and we were thinking of playing some card games. You wanna join? I made popcorn." 

"Oh! " Ruby looked down at her bindings. She smushed her lips together and then sighed. She probably shouldn't refuse them (they'd wonder what was up), and Blake was nice. "Yeah, I'll be out in a bit." 

 

 

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guarantee that the information here is at least partially not-completely-false, to some degree. I try not to be horrifically false anywhere, but double-check with your independent sources, if you decide to internalize any information from a fanfic.

Glynda did her best to ignore it, for most of the class period. It wasn't exactly a polite topic of conversation, and it definitely wasn't in the physics curriculum ( ~~Although if you-~~ NO! Bad brain! Cut that out!) And someone without her ... predilections, so to speak, would probably not even notice, let a lone feel the need to actually bring it up- and with a student no less. 

But, perhaps it was precisely because of her predilections that she ought to say something. 

The end of class bell rang, and Glynda yelled out one last instruction relating to the homework to her class. 

And, afterwards, the teacher adjusted her glasses. "Ms Rose, would you see me after class?" she said. It was totally normal for a teacher to ask a student to stay after class. Especially if that student had a history of less-than-stellar grades. 

So Glynda pretended to look through some papers as the majority of her students shuffled out the door.

And after the last student left, and Ruby stood before her desk, clutching her bag in front of her and trying to smile, sheepishly, the teacher looked up and adjusted her glasses again. She took a breath. 

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side. She pontificated, before she figured out how to speak. "Were you," Glynda swirled the air with her right hand, "Using packing twine as bondage rope?" 

Ruby squeaked and blushed and sunk into her hoodie. She grabbbed her left wrist and looked at the wall. "Y-yeah..." 

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the other side. "Let me see your wrists."  

Ruby shakily brought her left hand out, Or, at least, she brought the end of an over-long sleeve out, with her hand somewhere inside. Glynda was always a little curious at how Ruby managed to write with her hands up her sleeves all the time. 

Glynda took Ruby's sleeve and, delicately, she pushed the cloth up her student's forearm. Glynda turned Ruby's hand over, to examine the redness around the girl's wrists. 

Also, Ruby's hand was rather cold and rather bony; mostly pale but red around the knuckles- and wrists, whoch is what Glynda'd noticed originally, after Ruby kept scratching them all class. Ruby had tensed, at first, but Glynda could soon after feel the muscles in her student's hand relax- (and possibly shudder just a bit, like Ruby was enjoying this a bit too much). Glynda idly ran her thumb along Ruby's palm once, twice, three times, taking notes of the callouses in the teenager's hands and the lines in her palms and-

Glynda realized she was just sitting there, ~~enjoying~~ examining her student's hand, in her own. ~~You could say they were holding hands.~~ She cleared her throat and let go of Ruby's hand to pull out her purse. She pulled out her ~~aftercare~~ first-aid kit and procured a tube of vitamin E lotion.

At her teacher's bidding, Ruby held her hand out again. Glynda successfully avoided getting distracted when she rubbed the lotion around the raw parts of Ruby's porcelain skin....

~~Come to think of it, Ruby might have some redness on other parts of her body-~~

Glynda cleared her throat, harder this time, and put on her teachery voice. She tried to make eye contact as she tended to Ruby's other hand. 

"Using the wrong kind of rope can cause chafing, so you should avoid fibrous rope, or ropes made from minimally processed plant material." Glynda titled her head to the side. "Unless you wanted that?" 

"Ummm," Ruby sunk into her hoodie more. "What- what kind of rope would you suggest?"

Glynda looked at the window. For some reason, eye contact with her student, right now, was difficult. "Silk rope is the most universally touted material, but it is rather expensive. You could look for cotton rope. Synthetic or sisal rope from any hardware store is also generally considered effective, cheap, and accessible."  

Ruby nodded. "Okay. I'll remember that." 

"Additionally, you have to be careful with the kinds of knots you tie." Glynda glanced down at Ruby's wrist. "You'll need to be careful about not cutting off circulation. Oh!- Do you have a safety cutter, in case you need to get out in a hurry?" 

"Ummm, no...." Ruby said. "T-that would be convenient, huh?" 

Glynda exhaled sharply. "Safety is more of a concern than convenience, but sure." 

Glynda rummaged through her purse again. This time she pulled out a small black handle, with an inward facing section of sharpened metal. She held it out towards Ruby. "Here," said Glynda. She failed at eye contact again. "I have extra's, so it's no big deal. And your safety's important." 

Ruby took three tries to accept Glynda's gift, shaking nervously the whole time, but she was better at eye contact, at this juncture. "Thank you," she said, smiling sheepishly. 

"Umm," Ruby tilted her head to the side. "Y- you keep this on you?"  

Glynda looked to the side and shrugged, a little embarrassed. "Well, you never know- a student might get caught in a bunch of ropes and need to be freed immediately, and I could be the hero teacher who just happened to have a climbing rope cutter on her, at the time." 

Ruby brought her free hand to her mouth and giggled. ~~That made Glynda strangely pleased.~~

"There's always the chance something can go wrong, and it's better to be safe. That's one of the taglines of BDSM, ahahaha," Glynda immediately regretted her attempt at humor. Her glasses fogged up, too. But it got a chuckle out of Ruby, ~~so it was worth it.~~

A quick glasses adjustment later and Glynda could see again. During that time she also regained the ability to speak. "A-anyway. With proper knots, and once you get better at the technique, you'll find it less and less uncomfortable. Unless that's what you're going for, in which case, there's techniques for that too." 

Ruby nodded along, the diligent student she was. She took a breath. "Do- do you think you could show me, sometime?" 

...

Glynda scrunched her mouth to every side. that- that was  _extremely_ inappropriate. Forget the fact that it was arguable that Ruby was too young to be taught that sort of thing, and even if not, it was really,  _really_ not the place for her teacher to show her that-

Well, yes, Glynda was a teacher, yes? Yes. Not just for physics; so, arguably, this was just another extracurricular teaching thing. And it'd be better if Ruby learned the proper techniques, for her safety. ~~And maybe Glynda missed the BDSM scene, a little- being able to share it with someone.~~

Glynda took a long breath. "Why not? Come see me tomorrow, after school." 

Ruby blinked. Then she glowed. "Y-yes ma'am!" 

 


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard disclaimer: I guarantee no expertise in anything presented. This is a story, not a guide, so while I'm trying to be accurate, please use google or a real source to double-check anything you going to try.

For the second day in a row, Glynda tried to focus on class. It was another thing that really shouldn't bother a normal teacher, if she didn't know that one of her students had a serious crush on her. 

Because, today, Ruby had showed up to class all dressed up. Her hair was done; feathered, with a little rose (haha, how appropriate) hair clip at her right temple, and she was wearing a nice pleated skirt and a button-down blouse under her hoodie, along with some touches of makeup that made Ruby’s already adorable eyes look bigger and brighter and-

Well, it did suggest that Ruby was more mature, if Glynda were to subscribe to typical interpretations of social cues. If it meant Ruby was trying to impress her, well, Glynda wouldn’t be so easily swayed.

 

Glynda fantasized a bit, thinking of what Ruby could to that would actually impress her- she told herself that it was just so she could be en guard and react standoffishly if Ruby actually did manage to, say, compose a sonnet or ace the final or duel a noble in her name or something. Because any of those were definitely likely.

The bell rang, and students started packing up their stuff.

“Ms. Rose, would you see me after class?” Glynda said, offhandly, to her desk. It was normal for a teacher to ask a student to stay after class, right? Even two days in a row? 

And after the last of the rest of the students left, and Ruby stood before her desk, clutching her bag in front of her and trying to smile, sheepishly, the teacher looked up and adjusted her glasses again. She took a breath. 

“Ms. Rose,” Glynda began. Even the thought of what she was about to say threatened to dry out her throat. “This- this thing tonight, it wasn’t going to be a date or anything- “Glynda stammered, “I was just going to teach you how to tie column knots on a water bottle and stuff-" 

Ruby's eyes shot open. “Oh- no, no I didn’t think that at all-” Ruby said. She waved the air frantically. “I-I just wanted to dress up today. ‘Dress for success’ and all that. Is that weird?”

Glynda blinked. “Not at all." Then she chuckled, a bit. "Oh, phew. Sorry for assuming." 

Ruby smiled. "I- I guess it was a valid assumption to make, though." 

"Yeah. Ok. um." Glynda pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I'll see you after school, then." She managed a smile.

Ruby smiled back, sheepishly, and she nodded, and left. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the last bell of the day rang, Glynda took a brief rest in her chair. She rubbed her eyes and cleaned out her nose and rubbed hand sanitizer on her hands.

Glynda pulled out two lengths of rope and a metal water bottle, a little thicker than her own forearm. She took a breath. 

This would be like, a special topics lecture. A professional lecture. Like showing the ropes (haha!) to the new girl at the club, only with less flirting and while wearing more clothes and without a demonstration model- 

 

 

Eventually then there was a knock at the door. It opened, and Ruby tried to squeeze in all cool like, but part of her hoodie caught on the doorknob and she took a while to get it free. Afterwards, she coughed and tried to look dignified, but her cheeks were tinted and she stared at the ground a lot. 

"I, uh," Ruby said. She took a seat on the other side of Glynda's desk and she scrunched her mouth to the side. "I haven't had the chance to get any of the ropes you said..." 

"I figured that'd be the case," Glynda picked up the second coil of rope and handed it to Ruby. Ruby very hesitantly accepted the rope, with a quiet, ~~adorable~~ 'thank you'. Glynda then rummaged for another water bottle, but Ruby declined that one. 

"I was just going to use my wrist?" Ruby said.

Glynda opened and closed her eyes. "Well, I- I suppose that's fine, then." She coughed. "So, shall we begin?" 

Ruby nodded. Glynda cleared her throat. She took a quick sip from the water bottle she was demonstrating with, since her throat seemed so dry. 

"So, at least in the type of bondage I am familiar with-" Glynda coughed. Professional lecture, professional lecture. It wasn't weird, even if it was with a student. Who had a crush on her- 

Glynda coughed again, "Well, it's called 'shibari', and there's a long, interesting history to it that I'm not going to get into because I teach physics, not history." 

Ruby chuckled. Glynda smiled. 

"Anyway, the first thing you want to do is find the middle of your rope and fold it over. This is called the 'bight'." Glynda held out a loop of rope.

"Next, you wrap the bight around at least twice- since its doubled up, you have four lengths of rope, which you only needed one run-around for." 

Ruby nodded. She followed along on her wrist. 

Glynda nodded. "Next, you turn the bight at a 90 degree angle, and you thread it under the wraps. Try to pull the rope through with your finger, rather than push it from the base. That's a general rule for knots." 

"This length of rope between the wraps prevents the knot from tightening, thus preventing loss of circulation and bruises. It also reduces the abrasive factor of the rope." 

Ruby nodded. 

The next part- twisting the working end of the rope into a knot to hold the bight in place- took a couple tries, but eventually Ruby completed that step. 

"Now, you can call it done at this point, but if you want to ensure that the knot won't collapse, you loop the bight around the wraps another time," Glynda did so, "And it also gives the rope more a basis for support, if you're using this know for suspension." 

Ruby smushed her mouth together and nodded, twice, slightly. After a quick double check, she presented her knot (and, by extension, her forearm) to her instructor. Glynda approved. 

 

 

And after the first knot, Glynda got into the swing of things, and decided she had time to show her protege a few other knots. 

"So there's the basics," Glynda concluded, after the extended lesson, "And it's getting a little late, so...."  

Ruby nodded and slowly gathered up her stuff. "Thank you, teacher," she said.

Ruby offered the rope back to Glynda, but the teacher just waved the air. "Go ahead and keep that."  

"Oh! T-thank you, teacher," Ruby said, more softly this time. She blushed. 

"Of course, anytime. Have fun- but not too much fun, ahaha," ahhh why'd she make that joke- Glynda's glasses fogged up, just a bit. 

Ruby chuckled though. She bid her teacher farewell at the door and Glynda waved back, awkwardly. 

And after the door closed, Glynda exhaled, and she noticed exactly how hot her face had grown. Welp. "This wasn't a date," she said to herself. 

"Nope, not a date at all," she said, for herself. 

 

 

 

 


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I establish that Yang has one arm, in this fic? That was always the intention, but I guess she's only been described by Ruby, who wouldn't make a big deal of it, and by Glynda from afar, who might have been far enough away to not notice the prosthetic. I think her losing her arm in the past would make this fic less heavy than having her lose it sometime during. 
> 
> That being said, the typical disclaimer: I guarantee no expertise in nor even basic knowledge of disability. I apologize for any mis-characterizations, and I welcome any corrections.

Yang wondered if she should try to break Blake and Weiss up again. Their fight, she meant, because right now they were yelling about something that might be a little less dumb than normal. Turned out, they had picked opposite sides in the same topic for Oobleck's persuasive essay in Honor's Lit. Both of them had pretry strong opinions about Prison reform, it turned out. Yang had at first suggested that maybe one of them pick one of the other two topics, but that was apparently dishonest. 

Eh. They were literally always fighting, and even though they both said they hated the other, they still found excuses to hang around each other, and Yang figured they both got off on it, so it wasn't as bad as it looked. Yang put it at about a month before they started spontaneously making out. 

But, then again, the after-school rush had died down, and she kind of wanted to get back home to watch TV. And they were just waiting on her sis. 

So Yang poked Weiss's cheek with her prosthetic. Weiss was always too awkward to say anything. Blake also sort of trailed off. Yang smirked; it was like she had a superpower. 

"So does anyone know where Ruby is?" Yang asked. 

Blake turned to her. "She had some physics question or something. She went to Mz. Goodwitch's room, I know." 

"Huh. She's been working really hard to try to pass that class, huh?" Yang wondered aloud. Well, she was of course proud that her sister was trying so hard, so she resolved not to be annoyed at being kept waiting. Though if Ruby was going to be late, she could have at least texted. 

 

 

 

And, not too long after, her Rubaby showed up, a little later, smiling uncontrollably. "Sorry I'm late!" she said. 

"Heeyyy," Yang rubbed her sister's head. Ruby shied away but didn't fight it off this time. "I guess your physics grades are up, then?" 

Ruby blinked. "Yeah! Yeah, that's exactly what happened. I have a cumulative 83, now." 

Yang smiled, her eyes closed. "Aww, Ruby, I'm so proud of you." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruby disappeared after they got home. She usually did that; Yang had told herself to stop worrying about it.  

And midway through episode 2 of her new Netflix show, Ruby showed up, a little later, some adorable smudges of oil on her cheek. "I gave Bumblebee a tune-up," Ruby said.

Yang stifled a chuckle. Ruby had insisted on naming Yang's car. It was named after the old motorcycle, actually, to try to reclaim the name. Yang appreciated the thought, but it didn't make her arm less gone. 

But, it was a nice gesture, what Ruby did. Yang appreciated it, really.  

"Thanks sis!" Yang smiled. She patted her bowl of popcorn. "You wanna watch this thing with me? I just started, so you can see the premise if you want." 

Ruby smushed her mouth to the side, adorably. "Um. Sure? But! There was something I needed to tell you, first."

Yang paused the show and sat up. "Yeah?" 

Ruby closed her eyes and stood up straight and tried to look adult. It was cute! "I just wanted you to know, that I'm old enough to make my own decisions, and you need to respect that." 

Yang inhaled and kept her poker face. "Of course I respect you, and your decisions, sis." She leaned forward and rubbed her sister's hair. Ruby allowed it.

"O-okay," Ruby said, "It's just, sometimes I feel like you don't....?"

Yang shrugged. "Sorry about that. And- don't take this the wrong way, because you do that sometimes, but everyone needs someone to look out for them on occasion," Yang said. "I'm your sister, so I'm never gonna stop looking out for ya." 

Ruby scrunched her mouth to the other side. "I guess I can accept that." 

Yang jumped back into the couch. She patted the side of the couch, "Now c'mon! I gotta get as much TV watching in with ya before you get yourself a boyfriend to replace me, ahaha." 

"Ahahaha...," Ruby laughed. She sat down besides her and helped herself to some of the popcorn. Eventually, she leaned her head on Yang's shoulder.  


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glynda introspects.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real adults drink wine, right? And they have massive existential crises? I mean, everyone has the latter.

After Glynda got back to her apartment and she kicked off her shoes and threw her bag on the floor and slumped onto her couch and pushed her glasses to her forehead and she rubbed her eyelids.

Ruby had been _really_ cute, during their rope lesson. Like, her brilliant silver eyes and her nervous, innocent smile and her earnest, attentative look and how excited she got when she finished her first column knot or when Glynda praised her, she was really cute during that ~~date~~ not-a-date. Just, like, really, really cute. 

Glynda rubbed her brow some more. If she wasn't careful, she'd start, possibly, forgetting that she was supposed to be shutting Ruby down. Forgetting to be on guard against a cute little girl trying to seduce her.  _She_ was the one who seduced innocent, timid women, so she should have some sort of immunity to it....

Glynda took a breath and recontexualized the situation. So what if Ruby was cute? Lots of people were cute. Lots of non-person things were also cute. Like kittens. Or volkswagon beatles. Or millipedes. It didn't mean anything. Glynda could admit hat something, or someone, was cute, and it didn't mean she had to be, like, romantically involved with it.

Glynda went to her kitchen to procure a box of wine. That would make things more clear, probably. 

One glass later, and Glynda had calmed down. She felt more relaxed and she had cleaned out her right nostril with her pinkie finger. As for her Ruby situation, she had this; the best course of action was that she'd, just, let Ruby down gently. Hey, there wa2snt any way she could return Ruby's feelings, so she should make it clear that Ruby should seek someone else. 

Though, Ruby might stop coming in during free periods, or she might switch classes- or she might be forced to switch, by the administration. That would be suboptimal; it wasnt like Glynda didn't care for Ruby at all; she just couldn't care for her student romantically. It would suck if she precluded the former because she wanted to make the latter more clear. Besides, did she even need to? It wasn't like she'd ever let it lead to anything, anyway. 

So, maybe, Glynda should just pretend like nothing was up. Just slowly let Ruby see more and more of her until Ruby found out enough gross stuff about the teacher to fall out of her adolescent crush.

Glynda looked, with one eye, at the bottom of her second empty wineglass. Yeah, that was easy, to just try to seem less perfect. It wasn't like it'd be hard, or like she'd have to lie about herself or anything. 

Anyway, Ruby certainly wasn't making any sort of move, and Glynda'd already told her she couldn't return her feelings, so maybe she didn't intend to? 

So yes, Glnda determined that this whole thing was under control. Good. Yeah. 

But, Glynda though to herself, halfway into glass number three, it'd solve everything if Ruby fell in love with someone else, instead....


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, like, views shown here aren't necessarily the views of the author, also I don't mean to offend anyone. Sorry if that happens. 
> 
> EDIT: Also, I was under the impression the Ruby/Glynda ship name was 'Ruby Slippers'? I've also seen Hoodwitch (which IMO isn't very cute) and the basic portmanteau GlyndaRuby (which sounds sort of like the the Cinder/Ruby portmantou) and, somewhere, 'Magenta Magica', which sounds cool but is also a little esoteric. I like 'Ruby Slippers' the best, if it's not already taken, but idk, I just write this thing.

And the next day, Glynda went about business as normal. She greeted everyone, including Ruby (but she didn't treat her any differently from anyone), and she went through the lesson plan as normal, and she didn't call Ruby to see her after class, so that probably brought the suspicion level around her down a bit. 

And when Ruby came in for studying during free period, Glynda greeted her student with a completely platonic smile. Ruby smiled back- and, Glynda thought, maybe, that her student might have looked slightly less lovestruck than last time. So, progress. Maybe.  

And this went on like this for a few days. Ruby kept looking at her with bedroom eyes, in class and during study hours, but she didn't mention anything (and Glynda didn't notice any rope burns around her student's wrists, and, even if she did, Glynda had done her part; Ruby knew the correct way to tie herself up without hurting herself. Of course, it was the duty of a good mentor to check up on her protege to ensure she wasn't hurting herself. So it was with completely pure intentions that Glynda tried to subtly check Ruby's body for marks.) 

 

 

Since things were going quietly, Glynda allowed herself to relax a little more. You know; being less en guarde, not worrying as much that Ruby was always unsubtly staring at her, letting herself be a bit more open when Ruby asked her questions that might have been considered personal questions, stuff like that. 

So Glynda sat at her desk during today's free period more relaxed than she'd remembered being in the last few weeks, and she took a breath and cleaned out her nostrils, before anyone had time to get there to judge her for it. 

And, true enough, after a minute, the door opened to her class room. 

Glynda smiled. "Hello, Rub-" 

And it wasn't Ruby. Of course it wasn't. 

"Hey teach," said Nora Valkyrie. She walked in. Behind her was Lie Ren, and after him was Ruby Rose. 

Glynda refreshed her professional demeanor.

"Hello, Ms. Valkyrie," Glynda said. She adjusted her glasses. "What brings you here, today?" 

"Well, we missed you at the last meeting," said Nora. 

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side. Well, one good thing about knowing that a student had a crush on her was that all the other social problems seemed less dire; Glynda hadn't worried too much about missing the last meeting for the club she had joined. 

"I mean," Nora shrugged, "It would have been nice to hear the opinions of someone with experience, you know?" 

"You four are pretty smart," Glynda said, "I'm sure you did fine by yourselves." Glynda had annoying flashbacks to having to talk about her feelings to a bunch of random-ass reporters, for something with the Union. But, of course, since she was a teacher, she should be a leader, and yadda yadda. Her excuse was that she was pre-occupied with someone a little more interesting to her. 

Nora's smile didn't waver. "Yeah, but, like, Pyrrha and Juane are still young, and Ren and I don't have anything to contribute, so, like, it would have been cool if you were actually there." 

"I understand the impulse to defer to people with first-hand experience, but your guilt and desire to to not be wrong are less useful than any attempt you'd make to consider the needs and feelings of other groups of people. Besides, if people really aren't all that different from each other, it shouldn't be too hard to try to put yourself in another person's shoes." 

Nora frowned. "People are notoriously bad at considering other people's viewpoints, though."

"Well, maybe that's because they haven't had enough practice." 

Nora nodded, hesitantly. "Okay, fair enough, but it's obvious you're just using that as an excuse to get out of having a candid discussion with your club-members, so I can't accept your explanation in this case." 

Shoot. Glynda couldn't argue with that, not honestly. Luckily, she was saved by her ~~favorite~~ student.

 

"Umm," Ruby interrupted. She held her hand up, meekly, "What- what are you talking about?" 

Glynda blinked. Then she had an idea. 

"Well," Glynda turned to Nora, "If you're concerned about hearing different voices, have you recruited anyone else for your club?" She tried to tilt her head towards Ruby, in the corner, but Nora didn't seem that perceptive. Glynda was also trying to be subtle enough that Ruby wouldn't notice, though she knew the timid student was always, for some reason, watching Glynda completely and unblinkingly like she was in love with her or someth- ok, yeah, Glynda realized the logic there. 

"Umm," Ruby interrupted again, successful this time, "You're- you're in a club?" It wasn't clear who she was talking to, but it applied to everyone in the room, so eh. 

Nora blinked, and then smiled. "Yeah! We're in Beacon's GSA." 

Ruby tilted her head to the side.

"It's the school's LGBTQ+ club," Ren explained. 

Ruby opened her mouth in a silent 'Oh!', before she titled her head to the other side. 

"We talk about gay stuff," Nora said. 

"We also have pizza, sometimes," Ren said. 

Ruby nodded- possibly at that second part. "And- Glynda's in that too?"

"Ostensibly," Nora said. Glynda pushed away any feelings of shame that might have evoked. 

"I'll be at the next one, don't worry." Glynda waved the air. 

Ruby poked her fingers together. "And, umm." She opened and closed her mouth, slightly, just a bit, ~~adorably~~. "When do you meet?"

Nora brightened up. "Tuesdays and Thursdays at lunch, so, tomorrow!" She smiled. "Will we see you there, then?" 

Ruby glanced at Glynda, "If- you're going too?"

Glynda shrugged. She probably wouldn't miss two meets in a row. "Sure." 

Nora brightened up. "Sweet!" She ran up to Ruby and shook the shorter girls hand, grandly, for 8 whole seconds. "I'll let everyone know!" 

Nora left, slamming the door open and jumping out. Ren bowed and sidestepped out of the room right before the door closed. 

Ruby blinked a few times. "Um. Huh." She then pulled out her textbook and she smiled at Glynda, bashfully, fluttering her ~~beautiful~~ eyelashes for a second "So, uh, can I ask you some questions about magnetic fields?" 

Glynda smiled. "Please do." 

 


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No idea what I'm doing.

Ruby stared at the door to classroom 156 and took a breath. This was the door to the gay school club Nora had invited her to, and the club was starting now, so....

Ruby gulped. This was a completely different kind of embarassing than when she waited outside Ms. Goodwitch's door. When she did that, it was just that she was worried about her messing up in front of Ms. Goodwitch, not that that didn't mess up enough, and Glynda never ended up hating her. 

This, though, was a different thing. This was admitting to other people she was a lesbian, and she'd have to talk about, like, her feelings and stuff.

Well, Nora and Ren were straight, so maybe Ruby could just say she was there for the same reasons they were....

"Ruby!" said a familiar voice, in a tone that was a greeting, tinged with a little surprise.

Ruby squeaked and turned and flashed the best smile she could at her favorite teacher. She subconsciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. And, like always, Glynda coughed to cover the hint of a blush. It always made Ruby's heartbeat echo in her ears when she made Glynda react like that.

Glynda put her hand to her mouth and coughed, and she leaned back and tried to look like she was preoccupied with the wall. It was adorable. 

"Well, you going in?" Glynda asked. 

"Y-yeah," Ruby said. "I - I mean, I should, right?"

"W-well," Glynda said, with a stutter that was familiar to Ruby, but not in someone else's voice, "If for some reason you became preocupied, and you needed me to go with you, I would not complain...." Glynda glanced toward her out of the corner of her eye, for a moment, before continuing to stare at the wall.

Ruby chuckled. "Ms. Goodwitch, are you- are you nervous, too?"

And Glynda coughed, and she figeted for just a bit- and Ruby felt a semblance of kinship and a warmth from her stomach all the way up through her face. 

"Well, not to seem uncool," Glynda said. And Ruby chuckled- as if Ms. Goodwitch could ever seem uncool- "But I've only joined recently, so it's a little awkward."

Ruby chuckled more. "D-didnt you used to be a dominatrix? I would have thought you'd be too confident to feel awkward."

"Well, that was a different kind of thing. It's like," Glynda coughed into her fist again, before renewing her perfect posture. "Everyone knows why you're at the club, and you can be who you want to be- there's a performance aspect to it too, but, like, when you're acting out a scenario for a show or a client it's because you're having fun, or being someone _more_ than who you normally are-" Glynda curled her mouth into a lopsided smile, "and now I'm back in high school, and we're performing to hide parts of yourself, to conform to the silly social standards. In high school, not everyone's as accepting of who you are, and it's harder to avoid people if you embarrassed yourself."

"Yeah, but," Ruby bit the side of her mouth, "you once told me that other people's opinions won't be as bad or won't affect you as much as you thought, right?"

Glynda sighed and nodded. "I suppose i did say that."

"And," Ruby poked her fingers together, "As an adult and a former dominarix, aren't you cool and independent enough that you won't care what other people think?"

Glynda took a breath, and then she made eye contact, so Ruby got to look into her deep, viridescent eyes- "I suppose I can cop to that. I guess then, my hesitance is because I kind of don't want to. I'm comfortable being introverted."

"O-oh, okay-"

But then, Glynda put her hand on the door, and she held out her other hand- she really did- out to Ruby, "But if it'll ease your worries, I'll gladly accompany you. Play the 'confident adult' role a little better, aha."

Ruby felt herself blush, hard enough that she couldn't keep eye contact. She looked at her left hand, which she had brought up in front of her, worming it out of her overlong sleeve, but she didn't place it in Glynda's hand just yet. "Y-you shouldnt do anything you don't want to, e-e-especially not for," Ruby gulped, and she brought her shoulders up so her hoodie turtled around her chin. "For someone like me...."

Ruby felt a comforting warmth around her hand. She looked up, onto the part of Glyndas hand that was lightly clutching her own, and then up further, into Glynda's lovely eyes and gentle smile. "It's okay," Glynda said, "I'm not doing anything I don't want to."

And Ruby's heart pounded against her ribcage and jumped up into her throat and scrambled her brain and deafened her ears and droughted her mouth, but despite that last bit she managed to squeak out a meager 'okay'. She took Glynda's hand the rest of the way and let her savior lead her into the club room.

 

 

 

"But, uh, no offense," Glynda said, right before she opened the door. She loosened her grip, but not completely. "But maybe we shouldn't walk into the room holding hands..."

"Oh!" Ruby said. She let got of her teachers comfort, and she retreated her hand back into her sleeve. "Of course. I understand."


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glynda has thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still slow, short, bite-sized chapters, here.

Sometimes, reality takes a while to sink in. 

Like, Glynda managed the first few minutes of club just fine. People blinked at her, and then at Ruby. 

Pyrrha- the scarlet haired girl- stood up and walked over and shook her hand and then held hers out to the shy girl in the red hoodie. "Hi there!" 

Ruby awkwardly took the hand and managed a smile, at the floor. "H-hi," she said, ~~adorably, as always.~~

"So you're interested in joining the school GSA?"

"Y-yeah...." Ruby glanced at Glynda briefly, and the teacher shot her an encouraging smile. 

Pyrrha gestured to a totchke on Ruby's backpack. "Is that a <Japanese word> key-chain?"

Ruby stopped staring at the floor, then. She looked into the taller student's eyes, for a moment, (Glynda wondered if Ruby had trouble with eye contact in general, or if it was just with women she found attractive. ~~Glynda had kind of hoped that she was the only one who could inspire that endearing bashfulness.~~ ), and Ruby said, without stuttering, "You've seen that?"

Pyrrha smiled and rubbed the back of her head, managing the semblance of nervousness in order to appear more vulnerable and approachable. "Yeah, I'm a bit of a dweeb like that. It's a good show."

"Yeah, it's actually probably my second favorite, even after all these years....."

Glynda decided she was okay with Pyrrha. She was obviously interested in Ruby (though maybe Ruby being the only other girl here besides Nora had something to do with that) and she appeared to know how to flirt (which didn't _necessarily_ make her suspect- probably lots of totally normal people knew how to flirt without any of them being, like, skeezy heartbreakers. But maybe Glynda could try to discreetly ask around to see if Pyrrha had a reputation for womanizing.)

"Should we sit down, Gly- Ms. Goodwitch?" Ruby said, at some point.

"Oh!" Glynda said. A moment later, she remembered that conversations require two people's input, and she muttered something that seemed to satisfy her student, and she took a seat.

And then, after Glynda sat down and Nora had the group do introductions and pronouns and highs and lows of the week (Glynda made a joke about homework that went over well), and not until the group started talking about club events did the reality of what she just fully manage to seem real in her mind. She managed to cover the subsequent blush with her hand as she pretended to rub her eye under her glasses.

Look at her, letting Ruby turn her into some sort of motivational, aspirational personal hero. And wasn't she trying to do the opposite? Like, if she was trying not to encourage Ruby's crush, then she had failed spectacularly. ~~But it felt so amazing to be admired like that....~~

To be fair, she had tried to discourage her student- it wasn't actually that hard to succumb to her more despairing thoughts, like how she was ~~old~~ boring now and a little antisocial and probably not as adventurous as she used to be, and then Ruby talked her out of that....

(Speaking of which, Ruby looked like she was hitting it off with Pyrrha. Nora had asked something and the group was talking about it-)

"I mean," said Juane- who was wearing a skirt today, and Glynda would later remember to compliment him on it- "Coming out to parents can be tough, because a lot of the time they think that because they raised you they have some say in how you identify?"

Pyrrha nodded. "Like, 'I know you better than you know yourself' kind of deal?"

"Yeah," Jaune said, "and that can be nice in some way, but not when it's invalidating your identity...." there was a brief headshake, "So, you want to be really certain when you tell them, so they don't try to contradict you."

The rest of the group nodded. Glynda managed not to be too late to nod in unison.

"Ms. Goodwitch?" Said Nora, "as the adult here, do you have any input?"

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side. "Well, my parents were very hands off, so I kind of just let them find out through the grapevine and take a few months to process it, so I might not be the person to ask." Glynda waved the air. "I think Jaune's advice is solid, though. I mean, it'll be different for different people, and really the only wrong way to come out is if you're angry and in an argument with a family member, and you try to use it as a way to hurt them."

Nora nodded. (And Ruby seemed quite intent on this conversation.)

And, hey, Glynda remembered that it felt nice to be a mentor in general.

Well, now that her self-esteem had been bolstered, it wasn't that Glynda didn't like feeling confident- and realistically, she was probably still pretty awesome and self-assured, not externally defining her self worth and all.

Anyway, it was thoughts like that why Glynda wasn't paying attention to the meeting. 

"Glynda?" 

Glynda managed to hide her flinch. "W- <ahem>\- what?"

"Are you free next Tuesday after school?"

Glynda blinked. "Uhh, yeah, I should be."

Nora smiled. "Cool! So we'll meet in the club room right after class- I'll get the wood and - anyway, I'm glad you're all so enthusiastic about this; I think doing volunteer work for other organizations - like, everyone is equal and deserves respect, and we're not _just_ advocating for LGBTQ+ causes, but equality in general." 

"It also improves our standing with the school board," Ren added.

Glynda looked around, to see if she could discern from context clues what she had volunteered for. She could not. 

"Well, that was all," Nora said. She clapped her hands together, once.

And the other club members started packing up. Pyrrha struck up another conversation with Ruby.

Glynda tried to shoot another encouraging smile at Ruby, and at Pyrrha. With any luck, maybe having met someone else who might be able to return her affections would get Ruby to stop obsessing over her physics teacher.  ~~Glynda stifled a small, empty feeling of despair in her stomach in reaction to that idea~~.

Besides, Pyrrha was probably nice enough. So, mission accomplished, probably.

So after Glynda stretched, briefly, after standing up out of a teenager-sized desk, sh bowed awkwardly in the corner of the room to nobody in partocular, and then she left. 

And Glynda got only halfway through the hallway before a familiar red-hooded figured appeared beside her. Huh. ~~Well, that was a nice surprise.~~

"So what did you think?" Glynda asked. She'd act like this was all normal.

"I guess it was different than what I was expecting," Ruby said, "but I liked it, I think."

Glynda ~~forced~~ ~~made~~ let her mouth turn into a smile, because she was happy. "Pyrrha seems nice, too, right? You seemed to get along with each other?"

Ruby looked a little forlorn. "I- I guess. She's nice, and we watch the same shows and play a lot of the same games, it turns out. Though she liked the _Rebuild_ movies more than the series. Plus she mains  <made up word, spoken with vehemence>."

Glynda blinked. She did not know what those words meant in that order. "I ... guess that's a dealbreaker, then?"

Ruby chuckled. "And, well, she's a lot less mature and inspiring than you...." Ruby kept staring straight ahead, as a blush effervesced across her cheeks.

Glynda coughed. "Oh. Thank you." Then Glynda realized what Ruby's words implied. "Wait- I wasn't saying that you should get together or anything-," she lied.

"You shouldn't worry about me falling for someone else, ahaha...." Ruby managed to say.  She was getting more confident now, huh?  Maybe it was Glynda's inspiring speech, earlier.

Ruby's hand brushed Glynda's, briefly, as they walked side by side. Glynda gave it a quick squeeze in response.

In, like, a reassuring way, though. Not in a flirty way. Definitely not. Didn't even cross her mind.

Welp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The show Ruby and Pyrrha were talking about is 'your favorite obscure anime', and the game she mentions is 'your favorite fighting game'.
> 
> It would date the fic a little, but I wonder if naming specifics makes it feel more authentic, though? If I ever end up retconing this with proper nouns, the first one would end up being 'Kino no Tabi', and the second one 'Cerebella'.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick PSA, about how romantic comedies often portray, as sweet or romantic, things that would be creepy and/or disrespectful in real life. So IRL, you should respect someone's decision if they say they won't date you.

Once Ruby returned home, after she muddled through a few bits of homework, and decided it was a good time to start slacking off, she found that Pyrrha had sent her a friend request on Steam, and Ruby plugged in her headset and they ended up chatting for a bit while beating the crap out of each other, online.

And after their last game, a few hours later Pyrrha left Ruby a little note via sms. 

_\--I had a lot of fun! Hope I'll see you around, red :)_

And that was, well. You know. 

Because, Pyrrha was, well. 

Pyrrha was athletic, and tall, and she was confident (though, Pyrrha had backtracked the few times Ruby had disagreed with her about interpretations of different anime and video games), and Ruby was pretty sure that Pyrrha had been hitting on her, earlier today, and online, like, constantly, and that felt- well, Ruby had some mixed feelings about it. Flattering, because, like, wow, someone like that liked her, like, like that. You know. It was a bit of a new sensation for her. (Was this what Glynda felt like, around Ruby?)

So that was flattering, but it also made Ruby a little apprehensive, because she didn't really know Pyrrha all that well, so she couldn't say if she and her were compatible, personality wise, like, there were probably some commitment issues too, considering that it was likely actually viable that she and Pyrrha could go on a date or two. But Ruby didn't, like, not want to talk with Pyrrha. They could probably be friends. 

Also, Ruby might have had a bit of a fetish for older women. 

And it wasn't that a Ruby _wasn't_ attracted to women her own age, it was just, like, teenagers were a lot less interesting, and less worldly, and messier (emotionally, Ruby meant, but it teems were also messier in the literal sense- a glance around her room led credence to _that_ hypothesis), and it was like, adults had accomplishments, while kids usually only had dreams. And Ruby was pretty sure she had read something about having differences as a prerequisite for developing close bonds; if someone was always like you, they wouldn't be interesting to talk to (so, of course, the solution was to date someone _completely_ different from you), and, Ruby supposed, that having a lot in common took a lot of the mystery out of being attracted to someone else.  Also, teenagers were less likely to have several years of professional dominatrixing under their belts. 

 

 

 

Ruby brought this up (not, like, out of her own initiative- she didn't have nearly enough points in her social stat for that) when Glynda asked about the scarlet-haired girl, the next time Ruby came to office hours to do homework in front of the older blonde.

Ruby brushed some hair out of her eyes. "Well, she seemed nice, like I said. 

"She seems pretty confident," Glynda said. Ruby supposed that Glynda would know that, since the teacher was usually so composed and purposeful. The one exception was when Ruby brought up dating.

Ruby managed to look her teacher in the eyes. "You want me to go out with Pyrrha?" 

"I- I did not say that," Glynda said. She coughed. 

Ruby smushed her mouth to the side. "But you thought it'd be convenient if I fell in love with someone else." 

Glynda audiably took a breath. "Yes. That's exactly what I thought. I'm sorry." 

"It's ok," Ruby said, softly. She managed to make eye contact. "I suppose I can't blame you. But I don't really have any interest in dating her."

Glynda coughed and turned to the wall. She covered her mouth with her hand (And Ruby thought that, maybe, that was covering up a hint of a blush). "You know- you know that I can't date a student, Ruby. I believe I've mentioned it at least once before." 

Ruby chuckled (Glynda returned a wry smile.) Glynda's sense of humor was very understated. She liked that. 

And after that brief chuckle, Ruby forced her own smile, at the ground. Tilting her head down dislodged some hair into her face, so she tucked the strand behind her ear again.  "I-I know. I'm sorry for bringing it up." 

"You can bring it up, I just mean," Glynda pontificated, and she pushed her glasses up her nose, and she resumed eye contact. "I don't mind that you're here, but that is contingent on there being no confusion as to- as to what's going to - what is within the realm of possibility, in regards to, um. Us. Hypothetically, I mean."

Ruby smiled. "Of course. I know that." 

Glynda smushed her mouth to the side. "I must confess- I mean- you know what I meant there- that, sometimes, I suspect that you forget." 

"Oh! No, not at all." Ruby lied, "I'm happy just being here." 

And this time, Glynda didn't cover her face in time, and Ruby definitely saw the tint of red creep along the edge's of her teacher's beautiful face. But half a second later, and Glynda covered her face again, and she looked at the wall. "Well, that's, well. That's fine."

Ruby smiled.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Acknowledgement that Romantic Comedies can sometimes, in some aspects, come off as creepy. This is a work of fiction.
> 
> I'm finding I'm not actually as into this storyline as I thought I'd be, so I think I'll put the remaining jokes I had for it in the next chapter, and move on to a better arc.

The next day, when Ruby came in to study in front of Glynda, under her stern yet nurturing gaze, stealing glimpses at her when she thought she wasn't looking (Ruby enjoyed returning the favor, ~~even if sometimes she'd catch Glynda, ah, being concerned with her nasal hygiene~~ )- the next time Ruby did that, Glynda had less to say about Pyrrha, in particular, but it seemed like she was still hoping that maybe Ruby'd give up on her crush.

But Yang had shown Ruby enough romance TV shows that Ruby knew that she should  _never_ back down on love, or else you'd get eaten by bears or something. At least as long as her heart still ached like so.

However, for the sake of intellectual honesty, Ruby thought about it a bit, though, and she concluded that, if she ever met someone else as awesome as Glynda, and she formed an emotional connection with  _that_ lady, Ruby might fall in love with her. See, she didn't have a creepy fixation on Glynda or anything. Nope. 

 

 

Eventually, Glynda asked Ruby if she could ask her a question. 

Ruby nodded. Glynda could ask her anything. Well, mostly. Probably.

"Not to be rude, but," Glynda said, "do you have any friends?"

Ruby twiddled her fingers. "If I said 'no', would you offer to be my friend?"

Glynda smushed her mouth together. "Yes," she said, to the wall, before she brought her hand up to elegantly adjust her glasses.

Ruby felt her face heat up, a bit. "Hehe. But I do have some friends."  

"Ok." Glynda nodded. She leaned back in her chair. "Alright, yeah. I was just wondering, why you spent all your free hours in here, instead of doing things with your friends, or in other clubs, or even just to take a doubly long lunch break." 

Ruby looked at the floor. Her hair got in her eyes, so she fixed that. "Well, besides the obvious reason," and Glynda coughed when Ruby said that, "I do want to get my physics grade up. (Also, none of my sports are in season, and they'd meet after school, anyway)" 

"Well, if that's the case, then its certainly effective," Glynda leafed through a stack of papers, to pick a particular packet to hand to the student. Ruby recognized her handwriting on it. The green '100' at the top right, however, was not something Ruby associated with herself (At least not since middle school.) "You've been doing a great job, Ruby." 

And that felt  _amazing._  

Ruby accepted the paper with a squeak, and she closed her eyes and titled her head down, and she let Glynda's praise resound in her head and warm her chest. 

"Thank you, Ms. Goodwitch," Ruby managed to say, after a moment. 

"You're smart, Ruby. Maybe you just forgot it for a bit." 

Ruby stifled a smile, and she brushed the hair out of her eyes again. "Maybe."

"Are you doing alright in your other classes?" 

And, just like that, that warmth in Ruby's chest vanished. "I'm doing fine in all of them," Ruby lied. "I think it just took me some time to adjust, is all." 

Glynda nodded. "I imagine skipping a grade would lead to the need for some readjusting, now that I think of it." 

"Yeah. I managed to make some friends here early, thought, but Beacon's a lot different from Signal." 

And then they chatted a bit- it was nice, and they'd steadily been getting more talkative and personal during Ruby's study sessions, so that was nice. Ruby could feel them getting closer to each other, emotionally. 

"Anyway," Glynda said, "I wanted to ask if you had friends because I was - I was just wondering, if you ever thought that- assuming you're friends with girls- that, maybe, you thought about trying to get closer with any of them, and trying out dating with them?"  

Ruby smushed her mouth to the side. "I- I don't think that's quite a good idea." 

Glynda nodded. "I understand, if you're worried about them not accepting you. But, your true friends would, so it'd be be better to know that sooner rather than later, maybe?" 

"Ahaha," Ruby said. Glynda was very wise, and Ruby figured she'd see the benefit of this conversation later, even if it was kind of awkward. "I guess I'm a bit of a coward like that." 

Glynda cleared her throat. "That's fine." Then she looked a little guilty. "I realize that I may have been pressuring you into doing something you were uncomfortable with, and I just want you to know that that was merely a suggestion, 

Ruby shot her teacher what she hoped was a reassuring grin. "That's ok. Besides," Ruby said, "I'm fine with our current arrangement." 

Glynda coughed. Her cheeks reddened just a bit. "And, for the record- and i mean this as a compliment-" she adjusted her glasses and looked out the window. "I think it takes a degree of bravery to blackmail a teacher for a date, so don't be too hard on yourself. 

Ruby felt that warmth in her chest again. "T-thank you, Ms. Goodwitch." 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No guarantees of expertise in anything, and I welcome corrections.

Glynda decided to snoop around during lunch on her most... prominent physics student, today. 

And, this time, she noticed that Ruby did seem to be enjoying her time with those three other girls- Blake something, Winter's sister, and the blonde one. Ruby was laughing and smiling and engaging in light physical contact in non-bathing suit areas. Textbook friendship. 

And then Ruby noticed her. She looked confused (because really, what was Glynda doing, snooping around like some sort of stalker or something?)

Welp. It wouldn't do to leave without explanation, so Glynda stood up straight and smiled and waved, 

Ruby waved back, at chest level, shooting only the barest smile. The blonde student seemed to notice, though, and she and Ruby started arguing about something. 

Double welp. It wouldn't do for Glynda to put her student in an uncomfortable position, so she walked over to her student's table. 

"Hello," Glynda said, to the group in general.

"Hello Mz. Goodwitch," said Blake. She put her book down and turned to the teacher. "How are you?"

"I'm good. Yep." Glynda nodded awkwardly.

Winter's sister held out a hand to her. "I'm Weiss. I'm not taking physics until next semester," she said.

Glynda shook the petite girl's hand. "Then I look forward to having you."  

"So you're the one teaching Ruby honors physics," said the blonde. She held out her right hand. "I'm Yang Xaio-long. Pleased ta meecha."  

"Yes, I'm Mz. Goodwitch," she shook the blond girl's hand. "I guess-" 

And Glynda forgot what she was going to say, because Yang's hand felt distinctly plastic-

Glynda looked down, and saw that she was shaking a prosthetic. 

Oh, so Yang had one arm, then, that was cool. 

If she hand one arm, that meant she was left handed, right? 

So Yang hand one ar-

Yang smirked. "So, you guess what?"

"I- uh, um." Glynda coughed, and resumed eye contact. Yang moved her prosthetic up and down, so Glynda kept shaking Yang's hand- fake hand? Or was that rude to say, like, should she treat Yang's prosthetic (Glynda thought back to her experience with sex toy etiquette, and if that applied to people with non-erotic prosthetics {though hands were- NO! Bad brain, stop that!}, or if maybe it was enough that it was, like, Yang's property, so it was  _her_ arm in that sense-

"Uh, teach?" Yang smirked harder. 

Glynda made herself smile, even though it probably came off more awkward than she would have like. "Oh, it's just, you have a very Chinese name, and you don't quite... look.... I mean, not to assume anything about your heritage based on your nomenclature- just. Um." 

Yang chuckled a bit, and she smirked even harder. Besides her, Blake, Weiss and Ruby chuckled, just a bit ( ~~Glynda figured, if Ruby got a laugh out of it, it was sort of worth it.~~ ) 

"You- you know," Glynda said. She let go of Yang's hand and spun on her heel, "Maybe I should just get going now-" 

"Wait!" Ruby said.

Glynda, and the other three girls, turned to look at her.

Ruby sunk into her hoodie. "I- I mean, don't let Yang scare you away...." 

Yang chuckled. She rubbed the back of her head and smiled, eye's closed. "Yeah, teach. My bad. What did you come here for?" 

Glynda blinked. "Oh. Um. I just was. um. Going to mention to Ruby that she forgot her textbook in class....?" Good thinking, Glynda. 

Yang tilted her head to the side. "Oh? I thought I saw you with that book earlier, Rubes." 

Ruby chuckled, nervously, "Oh. I thought I had that too. Guess not?" 

"Anyway," Yang said, "I like your hair braids. Super mature-looking. Very teachery." 

"Oh, thank you," Glynda smiled. "I like your hair too." 

Yang beamed at that compliment. She ran ~~her real hand~~ her biological hand through her hair. 

Glynda looked to Weiss and Ruby, "Not that either of you have bad hairdos. Ruby, Weiss, your hair looks nice today too."

"Oh, yes," Weiss ran her hand thorugh her hair, throwing some of it into Blake's face. "

Glynda nodded to the bookworm. "And I know it's covered today, but the time's I've seen it, your hair looks nice too." 

Blake idly rubbed her hijab. "Oh. Um. Thanks."

Weiss puffed out her chest. "Oh please, Blake washes her hair with plain soap. It's why she only has it out like once a week."

Blake reopened her book. "At least I'm not using my older sister's fragrences." 

"I- it's a nice smell, okay? Unlike yo-" 

"You're  _how_ rich and you've still got hand-me-down haircare?" 

"I- how dare you-" 

 

Glynda saw an opportunity to duck out, then. Once she was out of sigh, she took a deep breath. 

 

 

And afterwards, during free period, Ruby showed up again, without fail, and since it had been all of like twenty minutes, Glynda had managed to shake the embarrassment out of her conversation with Ruby's friends. Eh, teachers weren't supposed to get caught up in that sort of social politics. 

"Hey," Ruby said, when she stuck her head in the door. "I guess I forgot my physics textbook here?" 

Glynda smushed her mouth to the side. "Thanks for playing along there. I guess I should have had an alibi ready." 

Ruby sat down at Glynda's desk and pulled out her textbook. "I mean, you could just have been saying hi. That wouldn't have been weird." 

Well, it'd be weird if people thought it meant I liked you, Glynda didn't say. 

"So your friends seem nice." Glynda said, "I guess I thought you just hung out with them without actually being close, emotionally." 

"Oh, no, we're kind of close," Ruby said, "Blake and I read a lot together, Yang and I watch tv together, and back during the basketball season I'd see Weiss on the cheer squad. 

Glynda nodded. "And sorry to bring this up again, but you've never thought about dating any of them? I know my gaydar's calibrated for sexual expression during the- during whatever decade I'm willing to admit to having been a teenager in- but I sort of got some vibes from them, you know." 

Ruby smiled, "So should we just say it was the 90's?"

Glynda took a breath. "Sure. " 

"The 1890's?" 

Glynda smushed her mouth together and shot Ruby a half-exasperated look. "I'm not  _that_ old." 

Ruby looked at the ground and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, "It's not a bad thing. I kind of, like that, actually." she mumbled the last part. 

Glynda covered up her blush with an adjustment of her glasses. "So, back to the original query, you had crushes on any of them? They might be adequate dating practice." 

Ruby looked into the distance and cogitated. "Not- not really, no." 

"I mean, that Yang girl's all over you, all the time. " 

Ruby made eye contact and her jaw dropped and she blinked. "Oh, _no."_  

"And she seems really fun. Like, in the way that's mostly fun for teenagers- maybe not for an LTR, but you know." 

Ruby turned to the wall. "I- I couldn't date her, ever." 

"Why not?" 

"Because of the, um." Ruby smushed her mouth together. She looked at the ground, in the corner of her eye. "The Westermark effect." 

Glynda nodded. "So you've known each other since childhood, ok. If that's too big an obstacle, I understand. Anyway, Blake seemed like the quiet brooding type. And don't think I didn't notice all the terrible romance novels she reads in class." 

"Oh, huh," Ruby said, "I- I guess it never occurred to me. We're book buddies, so we talk about literature, but not too much about feelings." 

"I can see how that last part might be an issue," Glynda said, "But hey, reading dates are a staple for introverts." 

"Well," Ruby smiled and looked up at Glynda. She patted her physics textbook. "We're discussing a book now, aren't we?" 

Glynda had to give Ruby that one. "Ok, ok. Anyway Winter's young sister- Weiss was her name?- well, she seems to be," Glynda pontificated, "Well, I think the technical term is a 'Mega-bitch'." 

Ruby snorted. 

 ~~Glynda was glad Ruby liked that joke.~~ "But that can be fun, sometimes. If you're a sub, then it might be what you're looking for." 

Ruby blushed. "Yeah, but, um. I was kind of getting subby vibes from her, actually, so I don't think we'd go well together...."

"Now that you mention it, I realize she did pick a fight with Blake that she didn't seem to try very hard to win...." Glynda then realized she was mentally imagining a student as a sexual submissive, so she became more professional. Glynda coughed. "Anyway, I guess there's no luck there, huh?" 

Ruby shook her head. "Guess not," she said. She smiled, softly, staring at her teacher with her brilliant silver eyes and fluttering her dark lashes for a moment. "Besides, none of them are as great as you." 

Glynda inhaled and exhaled. She figured she could just accept the ego boost from Ruby's compliments. 

Glynda also figured that if she ~~didn't have any competition~~ was alone as the target of Ruby's possible affections, she couldn't expect Ruby to drop her crush for someone else. Glynda tried to ignore the odd feeling of happiness at that thought. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guarentee no expertise in cooking, supermarkets, romance, or grammar.

It was 11:00 PM and Glynda was out of groceries. (Technically, she had all the essential ingredients if she wanted to cook something (And she did know how to cook. Theoretically.), but she was out of pop-tarts, and she kind of wanted those cheese filled microwavable pretzels, so she considered herself 'out of groceries'). Since she was a Real Adult, however, she could just drive down to the 24 hour supermarket. So she did.

The supermarket was usually pretty sparse at this time of night, with only a few employees to disrupt the hum of the fluorescent lighting or the whir of the refrigeration outtake fans.  All the employees were working on restocking the shelves, so Glynda had to occasionally sidestep a pallet of boxed food in her shopping journey.

Glynda nodded to a few sleepy looking teenagers in store uniforms as she grabbed a basket and filled it with toastable sugared bread and some impulse buys, like chocolate bars and a box of cereal.

And her inner responsibility made her grab a bag of apples and some peaches. There were beef cuts on sale, but Glynda was pretty sure she wouldn't end up cooking with them. 

And then Glynda thought she might just devour a pack of gummi bears, too. It probably wasn't the  _healthiest_ choice, per se- actually, since they were basically pure sugar, it probably was one of the least healthy choices- hmmm. Eh, Glynda decided that, as a Real Adult, she could responsibly decide to accept some unhealthy choices and the consequences inherent in such. So, Glynda made her way to the aisle with all the least healthy choices. 

And Glynda flinched as soon as she stepped into isle 15 (candy, chips, powdered drinks), because it seemed like there was another customer in the store at this time of night.

"Oh- Ms. Goodwitch!" said a girl in patterned pajama bottoms and a red hoodie (did Ruby ever take that off? ~~Glynda wondered what Ruby looked like under her signature wardrobe item~~ ) and monster-patterned pajama pants.

Ruby tried to stand up straight and salute or something. She dropped a bag of gummi bears onto the linoleum floor and bumped her shopping cart, so it rolled a few feet down the aisle. Ruby squeaked and scrabbled to grab her cart. ~~It was kind of adorable.~~

"Ruby," Glynda said, reflexively. She adjusted her glasses and blinked. "What- what are you doing up so late, on a school night?" 

"I was just- my sister and I were awake, and we were sorta out of groceries..."  

"Huh. I didn't know you had a sister." Glynda didn't recall seeing any older girl with reddish-black hair and silver eyes at the school, so it must have been a younger sister.

"Oh, um, I do, yeah." Ruby glanced at the gummi bears on the floor, and at her shopping cart- there was a pack of ramen, and three packages of chocolate chip cookies, and a few bags of chips, and a box of soda. 

"Oh, um," Ruby's face reddened, "This is- this is just the starting stuff, I was going to get real food right after. Yeah." 

Glynda glanced at her own bag, which she turned so that the poptarts were hidden behind the apples and the cereal box. "That's fine. I mean, if junk food didn't taste good, it wouldn't sell, right?" 

"But-" Ruby pouted, "But I do know how to take care of myself, honest!" 

 ~~Glynda decided against making a masturbation joke, right there~~. Glynda stifled a chuckle. "I'm sure you do." Glynda pointedly tilted her head to the gummi bears. "Honestly, I had the desire for some gummi bears too, just now. It's nothing to be ashamed of." Glynda wasn't going to say anything about her pop-tarts, though. 

Ruby blinked, then she immediately knelt down to pick up the bag she'd dropped, and held it out to her teacher, without making eye contact. "H-here you go, then." 

Glynda smiled and accepted the bag of congealed sugar. "For me? Why, thank you, Ruby." 

Ruby blushed and looked down and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "It's- it's nothing." Ruby coughed. "But, actually, I was going to make cookies out of the gummi bears. Honest." 

Glynda smushed her mouth and cogitated. "Does that work?"

"You have to be careful at what temperature you bake them, but yeah." 

"Wait, so, you bake?" Glynda said. ~~That was kind of attractive.~~  "That's pretty cool." 

Ruby made a half smile at that. "A- a little. Mostly cookies, but I did make a cake once, for a bake sale on the basketball team...." 

Glynda smiled. "Well, I hope they turn out well."  

Ruby brightened up. "I"ll bring you some!" she stammered, "If- if they work out, I mean." 

Glynda stifled a warmth in her chest. "I look forward to it." she coughed, and held ah and out to her student. "Well, you're going to need other ingredients if you want to make cookies, and I need some more cooking oil," that last part was true, partially. "So would you care to accompany me to aisle 11 (baking & cooking essentials, baking accessories, spices)?"  

Ruby made eye contact very briefly, before timidly putting her hand in Glynda's. Glynda gave it a quick, reassuring squeeze before they set off. 

 

 

 

"So what's your favorite food, Ruby?" Glynda asked, at some point.  

"My favorite- well, cookies and, um. Milk. Yeah." Ruby smushed her mouth to the side. "I guess, Yang orders takeout a lot, so I usually get fried rice and mushroom beef. And I like pizza and milkshakes and stuff. What about you?" 

Glynda nodded. "When I go out, I usually order some kind of steak, but I'm also partial to garlic crackers." Glynda decided she probably shouldn't mention all the red wine, though.

"Oh, that's cool. You know, 'steak' is the number one favorite food, I read somewhere." 

Glynda smushed her mouth to the side. "Oh. Huh. Guess I'm rather typical then." 

"That's- that's not a bad thing," Ruby stammered. Glynda patted her head in appreciation. Ruby squeaked. 

Ruby tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "And it was only one poll, I think, so it might be a statistical outlier."

Glynda grinned. "Glad to see you're remembering what I've taught you." 

"Oh! Yeah, always." 

 

 

After they finished talking about favorite foods and scientific rigor, and they filled their respective bags in the cooking aisle, Ruby said she had to meet her sister in the diary section, and Glynda went to the self check-out to pay for her food. Then it hit Glynda that she had, for the second time, offered to hold Ruby's hand, and Glynda's face burned. 

 

 


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guarantee no expertise in anything. Ahahaha. 
> 
> I worry a bit that Glynda's characterization changed a little bit too fast, but I was kind of running out of ways to drag chapters out of the previous situation without changing things a little, so here you go; the Beginning of the End of the First Season of this fic.

Glynda was used to Ruby being the only person to show up to her office hours, but, with two weeks left before finals, she figured the odds of getting random students during her free period would go up, probably. 

But, today, ~~luckily,~~ she still only had one student in during free period.

Ruby entered the classroom at the usual time (was it bad that Glynda had noticed that Ruby always showed up at around 12:55?), and they did the usual greetings as Ruby shuffled over to her desk and pulled out her physics textbook and started working on practice problems. 

Glynda bridged the silence, "So," she said. She adjusted her glasses, "I had a bit of a talk with Professor Oobleck, and I let slip your name, so we ended up talking about you a bit- in a good way, though, don't worry-" 

"O-oh?"

"He, uh," Glynda had wondered, maybe, if this was getting a little too involved, but it was normal to be involved in and, potentially, concerned with a student, right?- "He said you're not doing too great in his class." 

"O-oh. Yeah...." 

"And I told him that you were doing exceptionally in my class. So maybe you're just not as into English as you are into Physics?"  

"I- maybe." 

Glynda took a breath. "Or maybe it's because of the teaching technique?"

"Well, I'd say it has something to do with the teacher." Ruby blinked some bedroom eyes at her crush.

Glynda pursed her lips at the wall. Yeah, she walked into that one. She coughed and adjusted her glasses. "The point is, I told him that I thought that was weird, because you're a very intelligent young woman, Ruby." 

Ruby smiled and blushed and looked at the floor. She did that infuriatingly adorable hair tuck again. "Y- you're just saying that..." 

That was not the first time ruby had said those exact words, and Glynda didn't know how much of it was self esteem problems and how much was the desire to be praised, but Glynda was happy to keep complimenting her favorite student regardless. ~~Besides, insecure girls were really cute.~~

(Though, if Glynda was willing to admit to thinking that last bit, might have been a little predatory, but she wasn't, so it was fine.) 

(Also, insecurity could be read as modesty, and that was a positive trait since, like, the middle ages, right?) 

(And didn't she read somewhere that most people were a little insecure, and also that vulnerability was a signal of connecting emotionally?)

Glynda coughed. "I've watched you study in front of me for more than two months, Ruby, and I know you're very capable of succeeding academically." 

Ruby smiled her little smile again, with a proud little laugh as she exhaled. "Oh. Um. Thank you." 

"On the plus side, I think I've gone over all the material you'll need for the final, already- which is really impressive, don't get me wrong-" 

"T-thank you." 

"- so, maybe, you might be able to better use your free periods shoring up your grade in English?"

Ruby forced a smile. "I- I guess so. "

"Are your other grades alright? You said you were in six classes this semester, right?" 

"Ahhhh-" Ruby made an awkward teeth-baring expression that might have technically been a smile, "Not - not really, no." 

"Oh. But I know you're capable of acing all those subjects, Ruby." 

"I- I guess...." Ruby sighed, despondently. Glynda's heart ached in sympathy.

Glynda took another breath. For some reason (Haha, she knew the reason), she was concerned with Ruby's grades, you know? Like, it probably didn't matter much in the long run, but if Ruby was capable enough to get good grades, it was kind of silly that she wasn't right? Yeah. 

So Glynda opened her lips and inhaled between her teeth and tried three times to phrase her next sentence. 

"How about," Glynda said, and she had to try a few times to keep eye contact, "If you get A's on all your finals for this semester, I'll uh." Glynda bit her lip. "I'll give you a kiss. " 

Glynda took a breath. That felt a little forward-

But, you know, it was probably the least awkward way to phrase that, anyway. And, you know, this was verging on the line of inappropriateness anyway, but it was still on the, like, cutesy quirky side, right? ~~It wasn't like Glynda _wanted_ to kiss Ruby or anything.~~

Ruby blinked. Like, a lot. "Y-y-you mean, like, a Hershey's kiss, r-right?"

Aw, shoot, Glynda hadn't thought of that. But, it would be a little dishonest to say that she did mean that, right?

Glynda smushed her mouth to the side again. "No, just, like a real kiss. On the face. Like they used to do in county fairs. " Damn, that dated her a bit. "Or like, celebrity contests? Do those happen?" Glynda smiled in the corner of her mouth, "Like- you know? Just. A kiss."

Ruby blinked. 

And she blinked again.

And she maybe started hyperventilating as she brightened up- like, emotionally, but also her face turned red from the top of her hoodie's neckline to the tips of her ears and some

"O-okay, deal." Ruby stood up out of the chair and held her hand out, and she fumbled just a bit to pull her oversized hoodie up her sleeve. 

Glynda took the hand (it was a little sweaty) and gave an encouraging smile to her student.

Ruby gathered up her things and pointed to the door. "So I'll, just, like, go use my free period to study really hard on the other subjects, for a bit, right?

And then Glynda realized her glasses were fogging up. Huh. 

 

 

 

 

 

A moment later, Glynda heard a really loud, really excited, really girlish squee from somewhere in the halls. 

 


	27. Chapter 27

Still giddy and panting from literally skipping down the halls, Ruby jumped into the first study room she could find and, after one more squee and a few more seconds of kicking her legs and flailing her arms, Ruby opened her backpack. 

Glynda was gonna give her a smooch if Ruby got A's on all her finals. 

Honestly, that was, well, a little more than Ruby expected. 

Like, after the first attempt to get a date din't go so well, Ruby had convinced herself that she was content with just pining from afar (or, at least, from the other side of the desk). 

And she was.  Honestly. Yes. There was a certain romanticism to never needing to do the traditional romance thing with her beloved, especially since the vicissitudes of socially acceptable conduct forbade them from officially being together....

But, Ruby wasn't that much of a love martyr that she wouldn't turn down the opportunity to get a nice little smooch on the forehead or something from her beloved. Even if it meant studying super hard. 

And ostensibly, Glynda was doing this to ensure Ruby's grades didn't tank completely, and it was nice to know that Glynda was looking out for Ruby's future. Like, maybe this was Glynda's way of showing affection, since they couldn't officially be together, etc. 

Anyway, Ruby had two weeks to study enough to get A's in the five classes she was taking that had finals. It was doable. Yeah. 

Physics was set. It was, actually, really easy to study in between sneaking glimpses at Glynda, and if Glynda thought she was good enough to ace the final already, then Ruby believed her. 

Funny enough, Ruby was pulling a fairly solid B+ in History. The only snag was that Ruby wasn't too great at the essay questions. 

English was, pardon her French, kind of a shit show. Professor Oobleck graded on a curve, which meant every test day everybody got to see what percentage of the highest scorer they were. And the curve-setter was always Blake. And Ruby knew Blake, so maybe that could turn into a test strategy.... 

Math was also not going well. Like, what even was math? Scientists have been asking that question for decades, but it's like, 'what are birds?', or 'what is love (baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more)', or anything to do with magnets; the answer is, we just. Don't. Know. However, if the worst came to worst, Ruby might be able to <sigh> ask her sister for help.  Math seemed to come naturally to Yang.

And Biology was weird. They were doing cell stuff now, and Ruby had thought they were gonna study animals and stuff. Cells were a lot less cute. 

Music and art didn't have finals, though Ruby wasn't doing too great in either of them. She was starting to regret taking them.  (Like, why didn't she just take P.E. again? It could have also kept her in shape for track and field season next semester)- 

No no, no time for self-depreciating thoughts now. 

Ruby closed her eyes and leaned back and recalled one of her stored bits of Glynda's praise and encouragement. Ruby could never convince herself that she was capable, but whenever Glynda said the same, it felt true.

Ruby rummaged through her pack to find the previous English tests to review them, and she shot Weiss a text asking if she wanted to study together. 


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was it believably demonstrated that Ruby and Glynda talked enough to get to know each other? I feel like most of their written interactions were Ruby tucking her hair behind her ears and Glynda adjusting her glasses. 
> 
> If I get too worried about it and none of the readers get too annoyed at sequence breaking, I might retroactively add some chapters to fill in the 'falling in love' interactions. Or just pave over it in story. Hmmm.

For the fourth day in a row, Ruby didn't show up to Glynda's free period, or after school. 

Glynda wasn't too broken up about it. At first. She'd had a few more students come in to ask what would be on the final. 

And, since there wasn't a student in front of her, she could pick her nose and mess around on her phone without looking like a slacker. Crush some candies, catch up on some blogs, burn time in one of the commercially available methods to forestall the creeping existentialism inherent in existence with calculated nuggets of dopamine, etc. 

But even though it was probably the whole point of those bright distractions, none of that was enough to distract Beacon's physics teacher from having an introspective realization that was probably a long time coming.  

Glynda missed Ruby. 

Of course, she still saw her favorite student in class, and sometimes in the halls, and maybe Glynda peaked into cafeteria at lunch just to snoop, just a bit. But there wasn't enough time to talk during those passing moments of connections, and since Ruby was so adorably shy, she never managed more than a brief grin with broken eye contact half way through. 

No, Glynda missed spending time with Ruby. All the little talks; the lengthy physics metaphors, the lessons that digressed into anecdotes about her times as a dominatrix, the corny jokes that Ruby tried to convincingly laugh at, and all of Ruby's sheepish stories and the improper but still flattering interjections about how beautiful Glynda was and all the quiet 'thank you's for any form of praise Glynda offered- 

It was a startling realization. 

Glynda glanced at the afternoon sunlight illuminating the floating specs of dust amid the empty desks and she sighed. Usually there was a spot of bright red amid these pallid, empty desks and chairs and dust.   

And look, here she was waxing poetic at her loneliness. Pathetic, really. 

Maybe some more Candy Crush would help that. 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, after school, just as Glynda was about to head home, like, right after she beat this next level, honest, there was a knock at her door. 

A familiar hooded figure poked her head in, before awkwardly stepping through the door. 

"Ruby!" Glynda said. Then she coughed. "Ruby. What brings you here?" 

"Oh!" Ruby blinked. "Oh. Um. Did you forget? Cause, honestly, I did too, until Nora texted me about it...." 

Glynda tilted her head to the side and cogitated. 

"We had some outreach with the GSA tonight." 

Oh. Oh yeah. 

Glynda adjusted her glasses. "Of course. How could I forget that?" The way she said it, it didn't sound like she meant that literally. 

"Yeah." Ruby poked her fingers together, adorably. "Well, I um." Ruby smiley, gently, at the floor, and brushed a strand of reddish hair behind her ear, "I thought we could walk there together. I-if that's okay." 

Glynda coughed, to cover her blush. "Of course. That sounds lovely." 

Glynda stood up out of her chair and brushed herself off. Once she was at the door, she held her hand out, towards her favorite student."

Ruby squeaked and blushed hard enough that she broke eye contact. She wormed her left hand out of her overlong sleeve and held it out halfway. Her fingers twitched once. 

Glynda stifled a chuckle at Ruby's apprehension. She bridged the gap and took Ruby's hand in her own. It was warm. 

Ruby pointed towards the east entrance to the school and let Glynda lead her there. 

And after a moment, Glynda rubbed the back of her head with her free hand. "Anyway, remind me what we volunteered for?"  

 

 

 

 


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guarantee no expertise in home improvement, zoning laws, math, or parkinson's disease. If anyone has any corrections, please let me know.

They were all at the east entrance to the school.

Nora balanced atop a bucket and gestured theatrically to the tools and the   "So, as you know, as part of the outreach here, we volunteered to build a wheelchair accessible ramp for students with mobility issues." 

(Glynda silently mouthed an 'ah'.) 

"'We' volunteered?" said Pyrrha she smirked, wryly, at Ruby. 

Nora did not look amused. "Yes. I asked, and everyone said yes." 

Jaune looked at the bucket and the bag of cement. "Well. Um. I didn't realize we'd be doing so much construction during this project..." 

Ren started pulling out some trowels and sandpaper. "It's like home ec, if home ec actually taught you useful things, 

Jaune and Pyrrha shared quizzical glances. 

Nora tilted her head to the side. "What, you've never patched and painted a wall so you could get your security deposit back from your landlord? 

Most of the students shook their heads. 

Glynda looked to the side. "I've done that before." 

 Nora pointed to Glynda and looked at the other teenagers. "See? This is valuable life skill building as well as community outreach."  

"Wait," Jaune said, "Doesn't the school get funding for making accommodations for disabled students?"

Everyone looked to Glynda. 

"Don't look at me just because I'm a teacher. I'm here as a member, not as a resource." Glynda said.  

"Apparently this entrance wasn't covered by that, even though students use it all the time. As long as the school is wheelchair accessible, the school meets state requirements." 

Glynda raised her hand. "Quick question; how liable are we if this breaks and hurts someone?"

Nora smiled. "Completely, so you guys better do a good job." 

There was some nervous shuffling from most the rest of the club. 

"Oh, it'll be fine," Nora gestured to some wooden blocks sticking out of the ground, "We had professionals put the post anchors in already. All that's left is to cut the ramp and nail it together and do the railings and stuff."  

Glynda raised her hand again. "Are there zoning laws we need to abide by?"

"I was told that following this," Nora waved a small instruction booklet, "Should cover all the construction requirements."

Nora glanced through the booklet and then snapped her fingers. "Shoot! I knew I forgot something- My hammer's in my car. Well, you guys can get started without me," She said. She made her way to the parking lot. Ren followed her, for some reason. 

And the other Student's looked kind of lost.

Well, even if Glynda was here as a member, she was still the only adult in the area. So she took the instruction booklet. 

"Well," Glynda said. She stood up straight and put her fists on her hips. "Looks like we just have to cut the frame, nail it into place, and paint it. Shouldn't be too hard."

"I'm good at painting," Jaune said.

"Ok, that sounds good," Pyrrha said. "You've done this kind of thing before, huh, teach?" 

"Not at all," Glynda said. She adjusted her glasses. "I'm just smart." That made Ruby smile. Honestly, the supplies provided were a big clue. 

"So," Glynda looked at the build area and made a guess at the dimensions, "We have an eleven inch rise over a five foot area; how long does the ramp have to be?" 

Ruby blinked. "Um. About, 61 inches?" 

"Very good, Ruby." Glynda said. Ruby smiled at the ground.

Glynda tilted her head to Juane, who was beside her. "We recently went over Pythagorean triplets." 

Juane wasn't quite in on the in-joke, it seemed. "How wide are we supposed to make it?" 

Glynda smiled, and tried to subtly look to her favorite student, "Well, we could calculate the maximum bending moment before the wood breaks, based on the maximum weight the ramp has to sustain and the properties of the wooden beams...."

Ruby smiled, a little more softly. She glanced at Glynda for a moment and then brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "I think I know how to do that." ~~That was her girl.~~

Pyrrha frowned. "Or we could could just check the instruction booklet." 

Glynda dusted her glasses and shrugged. "Well, if we want to be boring."

"And if we assume that the manufacturers took into account the requirements." 

"Thaaaaaat's probably a safe assumption?" Pyrrha said. 

Glynda shrugged. Then they all put on the work  got to work. 

 

 

 

 

It turned out, Ruby was really good with her hands. (And Glynda didn't mean that in a sexual way. Didn't even cross her mind.) 

After Glynda read off the dimensions and the two of them marked the planks and cut half of them to spec before Nora arrived with the hammer and nails. Nora and Ren were relatively handy too. (They mentioned something about having had to fix up the orphanage, growing up).

Glynda had figured Ruby had trouble applying herself in her classes not out of laziness, but out of a disinterest in the subject matter and/or how it was presented. Glynda wondered if she could incorporate more practical experiments during her physics lectures. 

Ruby was such a hard worker. 

And, you know, Glynda couldn't really flake out in front of a bunch of students, of which one of was Ruby, so she shook off the urge to rest when things got a little hard, and she immediately looked to the book when she didn't know what the next step was. Glynda figured, this must be how Ruby felt, sitting across from her, studying physics. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Oh, wow, I didn't expect you guys to get done so fast!" said a woman. 

Everybody turned to see the new arrival. Nora was escorting an orange-haired girl, in a wheelchair. (Glynda took the opportunity to check her phone, while nobody was watching her. This had only taken a couple hours.) 

"Hey everyone," said Nora, "This is Penny, our resident cyborg, and one of three people this year who this ramp is for, at least this school year." 

"I'm Penny!" said the girl. She smiled, and then turned her head and tapped a few wires running down her neck, "And, technically, Nora is correct. Effectively, though, I'm just your average girl." 

Penny then rolled her wheelchair up the ramp. "Not bad! I assume you'll finish painting it?"

"Yeah, we're gonna finish painting it and call it good?" Juane said. 

Nora shrugged. "Ozpin's going to have to approve it, but I figured, if Penny was still here for the e-sports club, so why don't we get some client feedback?" 

"We have an e-sports club?" Pyrrha said, suddenly.

"Oh, yeah," Penny said, "We're doing <video game jargon>" 

"Oh, dang! You know, I play <Jargon jargon words words>," 

And that left the five other members of the club to finish painting the ramp. 

 

 

 

After they finished up, helped take the materials to the shop room, Nora and Ren thanks everyone, Jaune said their farewells, and Pyrrha offered to help Penny to her form of transit. 

So that left Ruby and Glynda there alone. Ruby audibly exhaled and did her hair tuck thing again. Glynda coughed. 

"It's pretty late," Glynda ventured, "Did you need a ride home?" 

"Um. Actually, I was going to study over at my friend Weiss's, after this.. 

"Then a ride to Ms. Schnee's residence?" 

Ruby seemed to flinch, slightly. It was kind of adorable. "Like, in your car?"

~~no, I meant a different sort of ride~~ "Yes," Glynda said. She adjusted her glasses. 

Ruby blinked, then she took a breath, and then she smiled, at the ground. "I'd like that." 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author notes: back before I gave up on the 'Glynda tries to hook Ruby up with other students' subplot, Penny was going to have a vague awkward flirty scene with Ruby, reminiscent of the canon episodes.


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to alienate some subscribers. 
> 
> I figured it would make sense for Ruby to know something about cars, so I hope you appreicate the cursurary, surface-level research I did on cars for this fic. But for seriously, pretend Ruby's knowledgeable about cars.
> 
> So disclaimer: I guarantee no expertise in romance, cars, music- especially subgeneres of music- BDSM clubs, or grammar.

Ruby followed Glynda to her car and in time it took to walk there, she couldn't really think of anything to say, or do except fidget with her thumbs.

And she wondered if, maybe, the other students in the GSA thought there was something between the two. She had first started showing up because of Glynda. Maybe they thought Glynda had just invited her to GSA because Glynda was aware Ruby was a lesbian? No, wait- Nora was there when Ruby asked to join, so maybe they just assumed she and Glynda were friends.

The big question was, though, if they thought that maybe she and Glynda were involved, like, inappropriately, and if that would get around. Glynda was worried about that, so Ruby figured she should be too.

Eventually, they got to the teacher's parking lit. Glynda pointed to a car, painted a nice metallic shade of purple.

Ruby paused. 

"That's a Tesla." A 2015 Tesla Model S, specifically.

"Huh? Oh. Yes, I guess it is." Glynda then looked to the side and gritted her teeth for a moment, then turned back to Ruby. "Actually, could you wait there, just a moment?"

Of course she could. Ruby nodded and waited at the passenger side of the car.  

Glynda opened the door on the other side and the sounds of rummaging could be heard. Ruby resisted the urge to look through the window to see exactly how messy Glynda's car had become.

Of course the cool part about wasn't the outside, but Glynda probably wouldn't let her look under the hood, just yet, and Ruby probably should keep her mind on getting A's on all her finals.

Glynda emerged from her car and walked over to Ruby's side. 

Ruby turned away, "This is a nice car."

"Yes, that is what the reviews said." 

"And its kind of expensive...."

Glynda rubbed the back of her head. "Well I'm single, and I don't have kids, so that means I have a fair amount of disposable income..." 

Ruby nodded. 

"And I have some money saved up from my, ah, previous... employment...." 

Ruby broke eye contact and blushed, slightly, and nodded again. 

Glynda coughed and adjusted her glasses, that way she did. The teacher then opened the car door for her student, beckoning her in. Ruby accepted with a bashful smile and a later wish that she had thought of something clever to say. She hugged her backpack to her chest and settled into the car. The seats were nice, and the middle of the dashboard was one big touchscreen.

"Do you want to put your bag in the trunk?" Glynda asked.

"Oh, no this is fine." It was something to hide behind, potentially.

Glynda looked over and grinned, her mouth closed, her eyes warm. 

Ruby pressed her lips together and glanced at the floor of the car. 

Cars were nice,because you by default weren't making eye contact, so Ruby didn't have to worry about getting lost in them. 

You know the kind of silence that meant nothing really needed to be said? Ruby and Glynda definitely did not drive in that kind of silence. Haha, no, it was awkward as hell.  

Ruby pressed her lips together and glanced at the floor of the car again.

"So," Ruby ventured, eventually, "You know where Weiss lives?" 

"I was acquainted with Winter," Glynda said, "She was the valedictorian 4 years ago, so she hosted a fair amount of events for the staff." 

"And, not to cast aspersions about the Schnee family in general, but," Glynda wobbled her head, "They've been.... involved with certain school, um. Complaints." 

"Yeah, that sounds like them..."

And there was more silence.

Like, they weren't talking- just shooting smiles at each other- and the car was insulated against sound, and the car wasn't playing any music-

Wait, music!

"You're not going to put on your music? " Ruby said.

"Oh. Oh no. I don't think we've progressed far enough in our relationship for me to be able to tell you what music I like." 

Ruby's heart jumped into her throat, prompting her to squeak in the most embarrassing way, and her blood flow to her ears made them ring and heat up. 

"O-our-" Ruby hiccuped, "Our relationship?"

Then it was Glynda's turn to blush- which was a little concerning, since her glasses fogged up a bit, and she was driving. 

"I- I meant relationships as in 'friendship'." 

"O-O-oh. Of course."

"Anyway, I meant that what kind of music likes is a deeply personal part of their identity, and sharing something so intimate means you have to be comfortable being vulnerable around each other- "

Ruby breathed. She wanted that with Glynda. She wanted that so bad. 

And she knew the rules for discussing music with adults; and whatever you do, don't mention dubstep, nightcore, or amateur minecraft-themed parody fan-covers of boyband songs. 

"-and that's something that has to progress in any sort of relationship between two people, whether it's friendship or professional or- or romantic-" 

"How about," Ruby ventured, "You tell me a musician you like, and I'll tell you if I've heard of them?" 

Glynda adjusted her glasses. "Only if you heard of them? You don't think I'm so old that all my favorite musicians have faded into obscurity?

Ruby figured she shouldn't answer that truthfully. "N-no, I meant, if I heard of them, and you had them store on your car, you could play some music by them?" 

Glynda made indecisive facial expressions. "Ok. How about," She said, "Black Sabbath?"

Ruby failed to suppress a giggle. "Wait, really?" 

Glynda scrunched her mouth. "Well, they got played at the club a lot." 

"So you grew to like them from hearing them a lot?"

"I suppose. Though I do have my own tastes."

"Yeah, of course. Like what?"

Glynda opened her mouth, and then she made a smile that could have been a grimace. "How about Nine Inch Nails?" 

Ruby more successfully hid her giggle this time. "Was it a goth BDSM club?"

"Not any more than usual." Glynda's cheeks reddened just a bit, "Besides, who says that Black Sabbath and Nine Inch Nails are goth bands? "

"Um," Ruby said, "I've heard some of their songs. And, kind of a hint; the band names are pretty goth-y...." 

"Says you." Glynda pouted. 

Ruby giggled again. Glynda shot her a quick grin, before went back to pouting.

Ruby regained her composure. "You're not just naming popular bands, are you?"

"I- maybe," Glynda said. "Honestly, you struck me as the sort of girl who'd listen to goth bands."

"Well, I never said I didn't like them. I'm just surprised you did." 

"What kind of music did you think I'd be into?" 

"Well," Ruby brushed the hair out of her eyes, "I guess I didn't know what kind of music they'd play at, you know. Those sorts of things...." 

"No? What kind of music did you think they'd play at those sorts of things?"

"Well, was it a lesbian BDSM club?"

"It was female focused, yes." 

"So wouldn't you have played, like, lesbian music?"

"What's lesbian music?"

"I don't know. Like, Lady Gaga or something?" 

"Oh. Lady Gaga wasn't a thing back when I worked as a Domme." 

"Really? Her first album was, like ten years ago-"

"Ruby, are you trying to make me feel old?"

"I- are you ashamed of that?" 

Glynda opened and closed her mouth. 

Ruby tried to look reassuring. "I don't think that's a bad thing. It means you've got life experience and wisdom and accomplishments." Ruby looked at the ground, and her hair got in her eyes. "I-, um. I find that attractive."

Glynda blushed a lot, after that. 

Eventually, the teacher cleared her throat. "So it's not me. It's just my age and my past that you like." 

"What? No! No-" Ruby reached her hand out, but she hesitated. "I like you, because you're cool. You're kind and smart and confident and so, so beautiful, and you've helped me so much these past months-"

Ruby struggled to keep her voice above a whisper. "And- when I first went up to your desk after school all those months ago, I didn't even realize all that. I- I don't know if I really liked you or just had a crush, that first time, but now I know that I adore you for you, Glynda, because you're amazing."

Ruby's heart _ached_ after she finished. 

Glynda almost ran a red light. The sudden stop wasn't too jarring for Ruby, though. 

Glynda swallowed, and she adjusted her glasses, and she didn't make eye contact. 

"Thank you," the woman managed to say, eventually. 

And then they arrived at the driveway to the Schnee mansion. 

"You can let me out here?" Ruby said, "I was going to meet Blake at the entrance." 

"Ok, yeah." Glynda pulled to the side of the road.

Glynda got out of her car and opened the door. She was really bad at eye contact, now.

"Thanks for the ride," Ruby said, "It was really nice." 

Glynda smiled and she held her hand out, but before Ruby could take it, Glynda moved her arms awkwardly, outwards, for a hug. 

Ruby blinked, and- this was a little more than she'd ever dreamed, but she did walk into the hug. It was warm, and Glynda smelled like peppermint and chalk.

Glynda patted her on the back twice before stepping out of the hug. 

Glynda coughed and made one last attempt at eye contact. "Have fun studying, Ruby," she said. 

Ruby smiled. "Yeah."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just developing the secondary couple. Also, to show how Ruby interacts with people besides Glynda and her sister. Glynda, in contrast, has fewer friends. I guess that's what happens when you become an adult.

Ruby took a moment to savor the memory of Glynda's hug. She was so warm, and soft, and comforting....

And Ruby took another moment to remember that nice car ride she'd shared with her beloved. Glynda had a surprising taste in music. Mentally, Ruby made a note to brush up on her vintage metal music knowledge.

And after a while, a familiar figure, in a long jacket and a headscarf, walked in, form the direction of the bus-stop. 

Ruby waved and pulled out her phone to let Weiss know they were here. 

"It's about time," came a tinny voice from out of Ruby's phone. Phone lines were not kind to Weiss's already whiny voice. "I'll come down to get you right away-"

"And Blake's here too," Ruby said. 

There was a chortling sound at the other end of the phone.

"Wait, what?"

"You said it'd be okay if she came to study with us?" 

"Well, I didn't expect her to say yes-" 

Blake glanced ot the side. "That was an  option?" 

"I- let me just do some things, and I'll send someone down-" 

Weiss hung up. 

Ruby blinked. "Okay, thanks, see you too." Ruby said, for nobody's benefit.

Blake took a breath and hugged her bag, again. "Should- should I just go?" 

"What- no! No, I think, actually, Weiss is very excited that you're coming to study with us." 

Blake blinked. "What?" 

"I mean," Ruby tilted her head, pretending to think, "Weiss actually really likes your company. She's just bad at showing it." 

Blake blinked a few more times.

Then sthe turned her head to the side and pouted slightly, "Well, then she need to learn to be more honest. Typical Schnee....

 

 

 

 

Ruby looked around Weiss's room. The novelty of a rich person's bedroom had hence worn off (Blake, however, hadn't seen this place before, and she was doing exactly what Ruby did when the redhead had first been invited here, which involved touching everything in sight.)

Ruby noticed that Weiss had done some quick rearranging of her room. The dart board was taken down, the large stuffed animal cat she had named 'Blake' and liked to punch sometimes was nowhere to be seen, and last year's yearbook (which was a little more worn on all the pages where Blake had her photo) was tucked into a corner on the bookshelf. 

Ruby put on her most insufferable smirk and turned to Weiss. "So," she said, "You cleaned your room?" 

Weiss blushed a little. 'W-what are you talking about? I'm always this immaculate, Ruby." Weiss shot Ruby a look. 

Ruby glanced at Blake and put a hand to the opposite side of her mouth. "Yeah, Weiss is, like, wicked hygienic," Ruby said. She got a pillow thrown at her head for her trouble. 

"W-well," Weiss said. She coughed. "I figured, we could study some Biology together, since we're all in that class together." 

"Sounds good," Ruby said. "Did you want to cover any other subject?"

"I- well, I'm not in physics, and Blake's not in Math. I think the only other class all three of us have together is English."

Ruby glanced at the tallest of the three of them. "Yeah, Blake's doing well in English. Though maybe if we beg at her feet, she'll help tutor us for the final." 

Then Blake blushed, slightly. "You don't have to do that..."

Ruby turned to Weiss. "Ok, since she likes me, I don't have to do that. But Weiss is going to have to beg, though."

And at that, blushes crept on to both of their faces.  

"If- If I have to," Weiss began. She looked at the floor. "Then I guess I have no choice-" 

Blake's cheeks brightened. "What- no!" 

Ruby chuckled. "Anyway, we gonna study now?" she said. 

"Of course," Weiss said. "I had one of the maids prepare a table in the study...

After a short, silent, awkward, walk, the three of them made their way to a separate room. Blake idlt touched all the fancy decorations in that room as well.

Weiss sat down at a small square table with four seats. It had a nicely embroidered tablecloth and a small pitcher of iced tea with a few paper cups. 

And Ruby sat across from Weiss. She started pulling out her schoolwork.

Blake hesitated just a bit, before taking a seat in one of the remaining chairs. She and Weiss both stiffened, momentarily. 

Ruby smirked. Things were going as planned. 

 


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies to all the Animes I'm ripping off. Sorry Animes!

Ruby joined an after-school study group for History. It was actually really productive; other people have cataloged all the topics that the final would cover, and had even drafted templates for the essay questions, which was what Ruby needed the most help on. History was actually very interesting, it was just writing about it that was boring.

And, what would you know, Professor Port showed up to give them an overview of what was going to be on the final. So, like, it was the best time to attend.

So Ruby walked out of the classroom a few hours after school had officially gotten out with a refreshed sense of accomplishment and motivation and- what was that feeling of feeling like you were capable of achieving something? Self-esteem? That sort of sounded right; Ruby had a renewed sense of self esteem. Woohoo.  

And she opened the front door to the school and- 

It was raining. Huh. Must have been a recent thing. She hadn't even noticed, during study group.

Ruby smushed her mouth the the side. It wasn't like she disliked the rain, or that she especially needed to get home relatively quickly, but the rain did put a damper on her plan to walk to the busstop. 

It'd involve texting Yang to come get her up. Yang was probably waiting on it too, the nosy jerk. 

Sure enough, Ruby had a text, from her sister, when she turned on her phone. 

_\-- Hey, you done yet? You need me to pick you up? Rain rain, go away, amirite?_

Ruby glanced at her phone. 

_Not yet. I'll text you.--_

She sat down on the bench right in front of the doors and listened to the rhythmic drumming of the rain on the front window. It was nice to just sort of relax, sometimes.

"Oh, Ruby," said a familiar voice, at some point, "You're still here?" 

Ruby squeaked, and she stood up. "H-hi Glynda." 

Glynda walked up then, looking as beautiful as ever. She adjusted her glasses and smiled. "Grading took a bit longer than I thought it would," Glynda explained, "And I had hoped that, perhaps, the rain might lighten up a bit before I tried to make a mad dash to my car. In heels."

Ruby suppressed a giggle at that mental image. "Yeah, I was also hoping for a weather change to make my transportation decisions easier...."

 "You forgot you umbrella too?"

 "Y-yeah."

"And I guess your hoodie isn't waterproof." 

"It's- it's not..." Ruby pulled her head back into her hoodie. Not because she was shy (well, okay, maybe she was still a little shy), but for old times sake. 

"Well, If you don't mind, I think I'll keep you company, until the weather helps us make a decision?" Glynda sat down next to her. 

 Ruby suppressed a squeak. Her hair got in her eyes again.

"So, you have four days until your first final, right?" Glynda asked. 

"Oh! Y-yeah." 

Glynda leaned back and looked into the distance. "I've been giving finals for dec- for years now, but I can barely remember the last time I took one. I seem to think it was particularly stressful."

"I-it can be, yeah." 

"Your first final's in History, right?" 

"Yeah." 

Glynda raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to get an 'A' on it?" 

"I think so, yeah." 

"Well, I hope you're right," Glynda said. 

Ruby failed to suppressed her squeak this time. 

Glynda hoped she would get an A-

Ruby's heart jumped against her ribcage. 

Did that mean she wanted to give her a victory smooch? Was Glynda just wishing her good luck in general? Maybe she didn't realize the implications of her statement?

And there was evidence for the latter, when Ruby glanced up at the teacher and saw that the blonde woman had turned her head and put her fist to her mouth, and a blush was effervescing across her cheeks. Ruby suppressed another giggle. 

"So, um, Ms. Goodwitch," Ruby ventured, "Do you like the rain?"

And then she mentally kicked herself. Didn't she have anything better to ask?

"To be honest, no." Glynda said. "It 's cold and soggy and it makes all your stuff wet."

"You don't like getting wet?"

"Well, now and again I do enjoy getting a little wet - huagh-." Glynda's eyes widened and she brought her hand to her mouth. "I'm so sorry, that was not appropriate for a teacher to say-" 

Ruby blinked. She tilted her head to the side.

And then she realized what Glynda meant-

Ruby's mouth formed a silent 'O' and she looked at the ground. It was her turn to blush, now. 

"S-so," Glynda ventured, "About that weather....." 

 

 

 

Ruby managed to have a fairly nice conversation with Glynda about the weather, actually, but the conversation died down to an awkward silence a minute later. 

"Ruby!  Mz. Goodwitch!" said a woman, at some point. 

Ruby turned to the speaker.

Glynda straightened her posture. "Hello Nora. Ren. How are you?" 

"Oh, just dandy." Nora smiled. "You guys stuck inside?" 

"Admittedly so," Glynda said. "We're waiting to see if the rain will die down.

Nora looked at Ren, who was standing right behind her left shoulder. "Well, we have two umbrellas, and I see both of you pretty regularly, so why don't we split 'em?" She handed Ruby a bright pink umbrella. 

Ren scrunched his mouth to the side. "Actually, they'd need two umbrellas, since they're not going to the same place, unlike us."  

Nora looked at Ren and cogitated for a whole two seconds. 

"Alright," Nora said. She swiped Ren's umbrella out of his hands and tossed it to Glynda. "I'll pick that up from you tomorrow during free period." 

Glyndad caught the umbrella. Ruby blinked.

Nora held her backpack over her head and grabbed Ren's hand with her free hand. She proceed to kick open the front door to the school and drag him on a mad dash through the rain.

"Nora- this isn't optimal-"

"They looked like they needed them more! Ahahahahhahaha!"

Then the front doors swung closed, and Nora and Ren ran out of sight, into the parking lot. 

Ruby blinked. 

Glynda cleared her throat and looked at her. "Not to make Ren a liar, but, if you'd like a ride home, we could both make our way to my car, and I could drive you to your house?" 

"I- I wouldn't want to get your car wet...." 

"As long as you- hrk- " Glynda cleared her throat. "Almost said something inappropriate again. But, hey, cars can be cleaned. It is comepletely fine with me."

Ruby breathed. Her hair got in her eyes again. "Okay, yeah. That would be lovely." 

Ruby glanced down at her phone. She shot a quick text to her sister. 

_Actually, I managed to get a ride home. Thanks, though! --_

Immediately, Ruby got a text back. 

_\-- If you're sure :/_

Ruby put her phone in her pocket and hugged her backpack to her chest. 

Glynda opened Ren's umbrella and stepped out, just a step, into the rain. She beckoned Ruby to join her.

Ruby started opening Nora's umbrella, but Glynda stopped her. 

"No sense sullying more than one, right?" said the teacher. She coughed and adjusted her glasses. 

Ruby squeaked. 

Ruby hugged her bag to her chest even tighter and she stepped under the umbrella, her shoulder occasionally bumping into her beloved, and they shared a walk and some warm, silent smiles in the rain. 


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guarantee no expertise in teasing your friends about their sexuality. 
> 
> I couldn't think of full scenes of Ruby studying math with Yang or her taking her history test, so they're glossed over in this chapter.

Over the weekend, Ruby had bit the bullet and asked her sister for math help. And there were a few have and 'jokes' about Ruby's achievement, and Yang complained, slightly, about how Ruby was gone all the time studying, but Ruby tried her best to ignore them. And after a few hours, Ruby thought she understood partial derivatives. 

 

 

 

 

 

And then it was Tuesday. 

Ruby had gotten a 98 on her History final the day before. That felt pretty good, actually. Like, wow, achievement.

But, no rest for the weary, because the very next day was her English final. But that was ok; she had a plan to ace that, even with the test being on a curve. 

The first part of that plan was to study really hard. 

The second part was happening now. 

Ruby leaned back in her seat at the lunch table she currently shared with Weiss. They were having an argument, and Ruby was winning.

"I mean, 'cmon, Weiss," Ruby said, between bites of creamed corn. "You're obsessed with her." 

Weiss pouted and blushed. "No I'm not! I hate her! I hate her so much! She's dumb and gross and her face is a butt and her butt is dumb like her face."

"Hatred is a form of obsession."

 Weiss folded her arms. "You know, _you_ keep bringing her up. You invited her to our study sessions. 

 Ruby laughed. "Well, I think Blake's starting to think you're obessed with her, at least."

Weiss blinked. "What?" 

"Yeah. I want to say, said she was getting some gives from you." Technically that was true.

"But," Weiss protested. She cleared her throat. "But I hate her~"

"Maybe you should talk to her. Clear the air. Make sure she's not getting the wrong impression."

Weiss harumphed and stood up. "Maybe I will." 

And the best part was, Ruby knew Weiss had no idea where Blake was at the moment. 

 

 

 

Ruby breathed. That went as planned. 

And not a moment too soon; Blake was supposed to be here, after having checked in with the art club for the first few minutes of lunch.  

And sure enough, Ruby uby spotted a familiar headscarf walk into the cafetera.

"Hey Blake!" Ruby said, after Blake got her food and came to sit with her.

"Oh." Blake said. She seemd a little distracted (which, hopefully, she was.) "Hey Ruby."

"Is something wrong?" Ruby asked, like she didn't know. 

"Weiss has been...." Blake looked to the side, "A little more insufferable lately. 

Ruby made a sad face. "Im sorry. But you know why shes like that, right?"

"No. Am I supposed to?"

"It's because she likes you." 

"I thought we went over this. It doesn't matter if she wants to be my friend, if her idea of being a friend is being a total mega-bitch."

"No, I mean," Ruby smiled. "She  _likes you_ likes you." 

Blake blinked. "Wait. What? You mean like, _like_ like?"

"Yeah. Like, sexually."

Blake blushed and sunk into her shoulders, just a bit. "But I'm a girl. And she's a girl." 

"Yeah. It's called being gay. They don't have that where you're from?" 

Blake's brows furrowed. "Not really." 

"Well." Ruby shrugged. "I guess you know a gay person, now." 

Blake furrowed her brow. "Are you sure? She's a cheerleader."

"Dude. That's like, the third most stereotypically gay club." 

"And she doesn't look or dress like she's gay."

"Ok, Wow." Ruby gestured to Blake's hijab. "Are _you_ really going to assume aspects about someone's personality based on their appearance?"

Blake looked to the side. She ate her food in silence for a bit.

"So," Blake said, at some point, "What does it mean, if weiss is gay, and she likes me?" 

"Well," Ruby pretended to think, "I'd assume she wants to do romantic things with you. Just like heterosexual couples, except with two girls."

"And... What would _that_ entail?"

"C'mon, they have to have had _romance_ where you're from, at least."

"So, it'd be like," Blake cogitated. "She'd want to go on dates with me? And, like, smooch me on the mouth?" 

Ruby smirked. "You want her to smooch you on the mouth?" 

"What? _No~_." Blake puffed out her cheek. "That's dumb why would you ask that?"

Ruby laughed. "But, you know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe she doesnt like, _like_ like you.."

"You know, I'm going to find her and ask her. And she'll say she doesn't think of me like that, and you'll be wrong, Ruby."

"Well, go ahead and try it, Blake." 

And then Blake left, to find Weiss. 

And Ruby smirked. She pulled out her English notes, for one more last minute bout of studying. 

 

 

 

Half an hour later, during their English class, Weiss walked in a little late, her face red. Amd it was hard to make out, but Ruby thought she saw the faint impression of a handprint across her left cheek.

And Blake showed up a few minutes later, teyong to look completely nonchalant, and pointedly not looking anywhere towards Weiss.

And Blake would still end up setting the curve for the test, but only by a few points ahead of Ruby. 

 

 

 

 


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now, ladies, gentlemen, and/or noblefolk outside the gender binary, the moment you've all been waiting for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea what I'm doing.

It was after school, on the last day of classes, and the second to last day that everyone was expected to be in school (Personally, Glynda didn't understand why the school devoted a whole day to a ceremony celebrating the end of finals.)

Glynda's Physics I final was one of the last finals, which she'd been given earlier that day, and she'd graded Ruby's exam early, so she could give her student her results by now. Ruby'd gotten a perfect score, obviously.

And right now, Glynda sat on her desk and examined the content of a manila folder, placed before her- it was full of returned tests, all from the same student. She looked up, and examined the student; a young girl in a red hoodie, meekly glancing up with bright, wide, silver eyes and a nervous expression. "S-so," Ruby said. "I-I got all A's on my finals...."

Ruby sat in her typical seat, on the other side of Glynda's desk. She had her knees together and her hands in her lap. She was better at eye contact now, it seemed.

Glynda stood up out of her chair, prompting Ruby to do so as well. "I suppose you have," Glynda said. She walked around her desk and stood before her student. Funny enough, Glynda seemed to have gotten worse at eye contact, now, but after a moment, she manged. She smiled her best smile. "Good job Ruby, I knew you could do it. I'm very proud of you."

Ruby beamed at that, smiling and glancing at the ground and tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. Glynda's breath caught, even though she figured she should be immune to that by now.

Glynda cleared her throat. "And I haven't forgotten my promise."

Ruby giggled, and she looked up with her eyes, fluttering her eyelids. Her cheeks reddened and she breathed. She tilted her head up and to the side, presenting her cheek and her forehead to the taller woman.

\- And that was the out, wasn't it? Glynda could just smooch Ruby on the forehead and then it would be all good-

But a part of Glynda wasn't satisfied with that. The excuse went two ways; she could give in to the desire that had been festering in her, lets say heart, and kiss Ruby on her precious little lips, and it would be fine. It was just because she had promised, and she could say, when she made that promise, she didn't expect Ruby to actually fulfill the conditions of it. Yeah.

So, propelled by the aching in her heart, Glynda cupped Ruby's chin, eliciting an adorable squeak. She tilted the shorter girl's head up, and she leaned down (which was probably not the best thing for her back). Ruby's eyes widened, as she realized what was happening.

And then they smooched, on the mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

THE END

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

( _Authors note: jk. Lolno._ )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruby shuddered, just a bit, for just a moment, under Glynda's hand as they held the kiss. Ruby tasted vaguely like chocolate, and she smelled like plain soap and baking fumes.

And Glynda pulled away, and she closed her eyes and breathed, and her ears rang and her heart was thundering against her ribcage.

And the worst part was, that didn't alleviate any of her sexual tension.

Her mind swirled, a tempest of competing desires and impulses continuously lassoed by her superego only to break free and rampage through the delicate museum of porcelain fragments of her identity- she was a teacher, and a grown woman; what was she doing macking on one of her students? This was so unethical. _So_ unethical. Why was she doing this? Surely she wasn't this kind of person-

But when Glynda opened her eyes, and she saw Ruby's face, flushed and mildly surprised, her brilliant silver eyes looking up at her in some sort of confused but encouraging expression.

And that was the final straw.

Glynda sighed. "Fuuuuuuuuuccccccck."

Ruby had time to make a sort of bewildered, discouraged face and before Glynda pushed her against the wall, grabbing both of Ruby's wrists to pull them above her head, pinning the girl's wrists against with only her right hand, just a little higher than would be entirely comfortable. Ruby's eyes widened and her cheeks flushed and her lips quivered.

"You're so cute, Ruby," Glynda breathed, "So, so cute. I can't stand it."

And before Ruby could reply, Glynda leaned in for another smooch, harder this time.

Ruby squealed in a very satisfying manner as Glynda pressed her lips against the smaller girl's, again, leaning over just out of reach so that Ruby had to stand on the tips of her toes. And she did, the dutiful girl; Ruby was putty in her hands, responding to every touch ad tease of Glynda's lips and fingertips.

Glynda stroked down Ruby's cheek with her free hand, brushing Ruby's jawline and chin and trailing a finger down the redhead's neck before instead opting to tangle her fingers in Ruby's stupid hair to pull it out of her eyes for her.

Every time Ruby moaned it sent pleasant vibrations through her jaw and electrifying chills down her neck, and when Glynda pried Ruby's mouth apart with her tongue Ruby melted completely, her eyes fluttering closed and her arms went limp as her playful (hopefully it was just playful) struggle ceased. 

Glynda sucked face for a few more moments. And when she needed to breath, Glynda stepped back, out of breath, her clothes disheveled. She panted, for a bit, and Ruby did the same. Glynda didn't attempt eye contact.

"I- I should go," Glynda stammered. She grabbed her bag and left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I guess a lot of people have been waiting a long time for this. Here you go. 
> 
> I'm thinking two more chapters for the denouement and we'll get to the next arc. I'm trying to figure if it will be different enough to justify making it a separate sequal story.


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a reminder; this is a work of fiction. Forbidden love is enticing, but its probably best left to the realm of fiction. So I guess, don't try this at home, and I probably wouldn't support this sort of thing in real life. 
> 
> I guarantee no expertise in romance, high school, teaching codes of conduct, or really anything. 
> 
> Also, I've decided to make this fic a series, because I think it wraps up rather well with what's going to happen in the last chapter, that the next part of the story will have a different theme and premise (for example, less blackmail), and also I can make subsequent entries in the series have a higher rating.

Glynda stumbled her way to her car, then to her apartment, then to her pantry, to her cache of boxed wine. And then she downed a bottle. 

And then, the rest of of the box in tow, she stumbled out into her loving room, and she formally poured some wine into an actual wineglass. You know, like an adult would. 

And then she breathed, And then she laughed. Cackled? Lived up to the last half of her last name, possibly; cackling madly to her unlit apartment, empty except for the clothes and empty takeout containers. 

Because, welp, now she had done it. She was a predator now. Eeeeeeheeheeheehee. Maybe she could preregister to be a sex offender? 

And it wasn't like she didn't want it. Oh , she had wanted it. And she had been completely in control of her faculties, and Ruby hadn't done anything to provoke that (Glynda was pretty sure 'being cute' wouldn't hold up as an example of seduction in a court of law.). 

Because she couldn't deny it not, not after having stuck her tongue down Ruby's throat. Glynda stared at her coffee table through the bottom of her glass.

The kiss had felt amazing. Not just physically. it'd been so long since she'd been any sort of intimate with someone again. And Ruby had been a perfect little minx the whole time- it was like it had been rehearsed. Or like they were meant for each other. Hmmm-

But, the point was, Glynda had been attracted to Ruby, specifically. And that was a problem. 

Glynda poured another glass of wine, carefully, just to distract herself. 

Ruby was- Ruby was a child. A teenager. What was Glynda doing,  being attracted to her? To friggen Ruby Rose, a high schooler.

The adorable high school girl who always liked being around her and dotes upon every word that fell from her lips and also happened to have a compatible kink....

Glynda finished off her glass and saw that her current bottle was nearing empty. She opened a new one.  

Well, in a way, It was actually quite liberating, now that she wasn't trying to deny her feelings. She could look into the philosophical ramifications of being attracted to a teenager. Like,  _really_ attracted to a teenager. Ruby had become an obsession for her, these past few weeks, and Glynda could finally admit it. 

And, like, she was also her student. Someone Glynda was directly responsible for. Maybe it was specifically because it could get her fired and then jailed that Glynda found the thought so enticing, why Ruby's visage seemed to have a permanent fixture in her mind....

~~Maybe this was just her midlife crisis.~~

Now, to be completely fair (and it wasn't just Glynda trying to make excuses for herself), it wasn't like she would have smooched just any teenager. So she wasn't a creep, and this wasn't, like, her midlife crisis or anything. It was just someone stepped into her life who seemed perfect for Glynda to- to be somewhat infatuated with, perhaps- and that someone just happened to be underage and a student at the school where she taught. 

So scratch that earlier thought; sure, Ruby was pretty forbidden, but that wasn't the reason Glynda was so obsessed with her. It was, just, that Glynda may have been.... 

Like, Glynda didn't have the desire to just go macking on _any_  high school girl. Just the one. See, she wasn't a creep. She was attracted to Ruby, specifically, for her character, not just her body-

Oh. Shit. Glynda had just ran out on her, too. 

Just kissed and ran. Like she was only looking for physical intimacy, and once she got it, she had no reason to stay. 

And that wasn't true!- Glynda wasn't just looking to kiss and run. She didn't just like Ruby for her lips. (Oh my god). Like, she wouldn't have kissed her anyway, but it was like, the desire to kiss her student had come from a deeper emotion. It was because, well, Glynda maybe....

Well, since she was being honest with herself, she could probably admit that, maybe, hypothetically....

She wanted something more? 

Glynda cleaned her right nostril with her thumb and swirled the remains of her most recent glass of wine around for a few moments before downing the glass and clumsily pouring herself a new one. She resolved to clean up the spill on her coffee table, later. 

Wellllll..... 

It wasn't the worst thing to think about- a Legitimate Relationship With Ruby. Like, a Real Adult relationship, with, like, going on dates, driving around downtown, having dinner and impulse buying stuffed animals. Holding hands. Sneaking kisses after class and . Watching R rated movies together. Explorations into ropeplay. Meeting the parents. 

(Hahaha, that's be so hilarious. Why hello Mrs. Rose. I think we graduated the same year. Do you remember the fall of the Berlin wall? What was your favorite episode of _Fresh Prince?_ Do you think your daughter pursuing someone old enough to be her mother implies a failure of maternal affection on your part, during her developing years?)

Because, all of Glynda's feelings, they weren't weren't just about ogling how cute Ruby was. It wasn't just about wanting to kiss her or hold her little body down and feel her shudder under her touch- 

Glynda shook her head. No, she maybe, just maybe, was falling a little in love with Ruby. 

And she had one more day to tell her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, in another part of town, Ruby got off the bus and opened the door to her apartment.  She kicked off her shoes and went into her room and crawled onto her bed.

Ruby hugged her pillow, to her chest, under her chin.

And she giggled like an idiot. 


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The conclusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this fic already includes so many shout outs to anime romance cliches I'm going to say, Ruby goes to Anime School, and in Japan the school system has their three week break in the middle of Summer, so I won't have to do any Christmas arc type things in the next installment.

On the last day of school before the break, there weren't any classes; there was just a ceremony where all the students crowded into the gym and the  the principal gave a short speech, and a bunch of other people gave significantly longer speeches, and the school was expected to be open until normal closing time so that students could sort out last minute administrative issues and clean out their desks and lockers and other places where they kept their things for the break and stuff like that. 

And that, in a certain light, was what Glynda had to do. Some, administrative issues to sort out, aha. 

Ozpin gave his customary inspiring yet oddly cryptic speech to the teachers and the student body, and some other teacher came up to ramble, and eventually, after everyone was thoroughly bored, the ceremony ended. 

Glynda dodged around small crowds of friends discussing their plans for the break and lamenting their grades (and, in some cases, discussing their grades and lamenting their plans), looking for one particular student, and not succeeding. 

Surely it wouldn't be to hard to find one red hood in a sea of students who mostly stuck to the uniform?  

She had been hoping to bump into Ruby face to face, to ask her student to see her in her room, to, ah, go over something. But maybe she'd have to try to contact her otherwise- but texting was still a little weird, for her. Also, she was pretty sure that Ruby didn't know that Glynda had her number, from the GSA clubroll, and she was trying not to come off as some sort of predator, so that option probably wouldn't do. Hmmm. 

 

 

 

Eventually, though, Glynda rounded a particular corner- 

"Ruby!" Glynda said. She coughed. "Ms. Rose. Ms. Polendina." 

Ruby smiled at her, and Penny waved. "You look like you've got someone else who needs your attention," said Penny, "So I'll be going now. Have a good break!" 

Ruby waved goodbye. Glynda nodded goodbye. Penny left. 

"So, um. Could you meet me in my classroom?" Glynda said. 

Ruby flashed a smile. "Of course." 

 

 

 

They walked to Glynda's room in awkward silence, sidestepping the steadily thinning masses of schoolchildren. 

The blinds were closed, the chairs were upside down on the desks, which were pushed against the walls, and Glynda's desk was newly cleaned. All in all, it felt private, which was good, for what Glynda intended.

And the door closed, and Glynda turned to her student.

 "I wanted to apologize," Glynda said, "For being so forceful- um. Yesterday." Glynda had found that she couldn't look back on the event of the previous day (And there really was only one important event of the previous day, ahahaha). 

"Oh- I actually really liked that." Ruby said. "I- I mean, you probably guessed some of my proclivities...."

Glynda rubbed the back of her head. "And I kind of just ran off, afterwards. I'm really sorry for that, too. I know it probably seemed like I just left after taking advantage of you, but it wasn't because I just wanted the- the kiss. I was just embarrassed." Really embarrassed. 

"Oh." Ruby blinked at the ceiling for a few seconds, "I can see how you might think that came across wrong. But I didn't think anything of it- honest. I - I liked it...." 

There was a moment of awkward silence, where Ruby did that thing she did where she beamed up at Glynda, not needing her to say anything. 

"There was actually another thing I wanted to ask you," Glynda said. 

Ruby nodded, looking at her expectantly.

Glynda smushed her mouth to the side, and she looked at the wall. "Why do you like me?" 

Ruby blinked. "Oh. Gosh. Where do I begin- You're smart and kind and beautiful, and really confident, and cool- and there's a cute side to you as well-"

Glynda turned to face her student, and this time, she couldn't look away. Her heart pounded in her chest and her throat and her mouth felt dry,.

"And like who you are- I like how you're confident and dominant but you're okay with being introverted, I like how you're so modest sometimes, . I like how you push your glasses up the and even -"   Ruby's smile bent downward in awkwardness, for just a moment, "even the parts of you you think are imperfect-" Glynda's nostrils twitched.

Ruby resumed eye contact, "And- I know it's a bit cliche, but I love your smile, I really do-"

"I like everything we've done together- I liked our car rides, and sitting in club together, and the knot lessons, and I liked when I studied physics at your desk- I loved that so much, just listening to you when you're explaining something to me, or when you're telling me stories- I like your corny jokes and your references to old timey things-"

Glynda forgot to take objection to that last bit, too enraptured she was- 

"And you- you took an interest," Ruby said, to her hands as she poked her pointer fingers together, "I mean, not romantically, but, you saw a struggling student, and you did all you could to help her, even when she didn't think she wanted it. I love it when you praise me, or when you say you're proud of me. That's not wrong, is it?"

Glynda blinked. Time seemed to slow down, and brain felt like it was on fire, and her and her blood thundered in her ears, and maybe that was just an increase in blood pressure, which would explain why her eyes felt like they watering- or maybe she actually was crying in the corners of her eyes, just a bit, or maybe that was just her glasses fogging up from the heat of her her face, or maybe the reason she couldn't see out of her peripheral vision was base there was only one thing she wanted to focus on now- and possibly for the rest of eternity-

"oh,  _Ruby,-"_ Glynda said. She had to break eye contact. "That's- wow." She coughed. And she cleared her throat. And she breathed, because apparently she hadn't been doing that for a few moments.  

"I had actually just asked that because I was sort of hoping hearing your answer might help me figure out why _I_ like _you,"_ Glynda said.

Ruby blinked. "You- you like me?" Ruby sputtered. "You mean, like,  _like_ like me?" 

"What, the kiss didn't give it away?" Glynda smiled, as confidently as she could. "I'm obsessed with you, Ruby. I have been for awhile. 

"And it's not just because you're cute. I- I'm more than just physically attracted to you. I like you, as a person. I like- I don't know. I like you." Glynda concluded lamely. 

And Glynda stepped into Ruby's personal space- and Ruby squeaked adorably and clutched her hands to her sternum and looked up at Glynda with her beautiful silver eyes. 

"And you've made a complete mess out of me because of that," Glynda said, her voice low. She took Ruby's hand in her own and leaned down, just a breath away from Ruby's left ear. 

"So take some responsibility for this-" Glynda breathed, "Maybe just a little date, with me?" Glynda said. "I can take you to dinner, and afterwards, we can go window-shopping at the mall." 

 Glynda blinked, and then she let go of Ruby's hand and she stepped back and adjusted her glasses and looked to the wall. 

"Sorry, I was doing that again-" Glynda's faced reddened, "You- you don't have to do anything your'e not comfortable with, and I didn't mean to put any blame on your or anything  

Ruby smiled, softly. "You don't need to worry about that, I don't think. " Ruby glanced at her hands, " And, um, I trusted you wouldn't go too far- that's what domme's do right?" 

Glynda scrunched her mouth to the side. "Well, I wasn't really planning on being your domme," ~~just yet,~~ "you know, just your. Um. Girlfriend." 

Ruby nodded. "O-ok. Taking it slow. Gotcha. I- I haven't had any experience dating, so...." Ruby then stood up straight, and her eyes widened. "Oh! In regards to your question," she said, "I'd love to. Absolutely." 

"My que- oh. Oh!" Glynda blinked. "Ok, yeah." Glynda rubbed the back of her head, "So, when do you want me to pick you up?" 

"I didn't really have plans for the break, so anytime's good," Ruby said.

"Sounds good," Glynda said. She pulled out her phone, "So, if you tell me your number, and we can call- or text- each other sometime to work out the details?" 

Ruby pulled her sleeve up so her hand more readily stuck out of her hoodie. "I can put my contact info in your phone, directly." 

"I-" Glynda made a smile, "I can put it in fine. It's not trouble. 

"It's really no trouble for me either, though," Ruby said.

"Well, I um." Glynda said. She made a grimace. "Not to sound like a creep, but I kind of snuck a peak at the contact info at the GSA, so I already have your number, so I just needed the pretext...." 

"Oh, that's okay," Ruby said. "I did the same thing." 

Glynda had to giggle. 

"Well, to make it easier, are you free tomorrow at 4:00 PM?" Ruby said. 

Glynda smiled. "Yeah. It's a date." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Wait," Glynda said, "What did you mean, 'old timey things'?"

Ruby shirked and retreated into her hoodie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope the chapter as a whole though did the story justice. Honestly, this started out as something I didn't put too much thought into so I could update more easily, but I guess a lot of people like it? 
> 
> BTW, I'm super flattered by all the positive feedback I've received for this, and I'm really glad for all the awesome comments! Thanks so much!
> 
> Also, sequel should be up now. It's about Glynda and Ruby going on dates.


End file.
